The case of second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan and other ex-officials is under pressure. This is what the ex-president’s attorney Hayk Alumyan told reporters today.

Today Judge Anna Danibekyan stated different reasons and rejected consideration of a number of motions, kept silent during consideration of some of them and intended to move to examination of the case on the merits. By not examining the prosecution’s motion to deprive the defense of the right to file a motion, the judge did just that, after which Robert Kocharyan’s attorneys left the courtroom as a sign of protest.

“To understand what is going on, we need to recall the story behind this. The prosecutors had already filed a motion to deprive the defense of the right to file a motion once. The judge had rejected it since this isn’t provided for by law. Now the prosecutors filed the same motion, and the judge overturned her own decision. Examination of a motion can’t be restricted, if it is filed. The right to file a motion also can’t be restricted, especially when there are motions that were filed seven to eight months ago,” Alumyan stated and had trouble saying what he and the other attorneys will do next.

Asked who is coordinating the court hearings, the attorney stated that even though he won’t give names, the fact remains that there is pressure and that the judge is constrained during every court hearing.

Asked if the court may invite a public defender, Alumyan mentioned that there is no practice of inviting a public defender for solvent people and it will take a lot of time for the new lawyer to become familiar with the case materials.