YEREVAN. – Colonel General Yuri Khachaturov no longer needs a lawyer. Mihran Poghosyan, the still lawyer of the former CSTO Secretary General, told reporters about this after Tuesday’s court trial of the criminal case against Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan, General Yuri Khachaturov, former Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan, and former Deputy PM Armen Gevorgyan.

To note, the court has refused—in the absence of the prosecution—to discontinue this criminal prosecution under Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code, despite the Constitutional Court decision that this article runs counter to the Constitution and is declared invalid.

According to the lawyer, the defense has repeatedly stated about the illegal criminal prosecution, and the violations during the investigation and in court. "We are not obligated to wait until the prosecutor's office submits a motion. The decision to terminate the criminal prosecution should have been made immediately after the decision of the Constitutional Court," the attorney stated.

Also, Poghosyan rules out legally a new charge or re-qualification of the current charge, as all respective deadlines have passed and there are no grounds for inventing a new charge.

However, he did not rule out that the political leadership may think of anything to continue its political persecution.