YEREVAN. – At Tuesday’s court trial of the criminal case against Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan, former CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov, former Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan, and former Deputy PM Armen Gevorgyan, the attorneys of Kocharyan demanded that presiding Judge Anna Danibekyan dismiss—based on the decision of the Constitutional Court—the criminal prosecution of their client.
The lawyers of the other defendants also made the same motion.
According to the attorneys, the court can terminate this criminal prosecution even in the absence of the prosecution.
At the same time, the lawyers stated that the presiding judge was being subjected to pressure.
The prosecution is absent from courtroom.
As reported earlier, this is the first court session after the Constitutional Court declared Article 300.1 (overthrow of the constitutional order) of the Criminal Code in conflict with Articles 78 (principle of proportionality) and 79 (principle of certainty) of the Constitution, and therefore invalidated it on March 26. It is not clear what kind of “overthrow” is in question, given that the aforesaid article was adopted under one constitution, and they had tried to amend it under another constitution.
The defendants are charged under this very article of the Criminal Code.
In fact, the court shall terminate these defendants’ criminal prosecution under the said article, as well as of others who are charged with similar charges in this criminal case.
