YEREVAN. – It is obvious that the prosecutors were afraid to appear at today's court session. Such an opinion was expressed by the lawyer of Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan, Aram Vardevanyan, in a conversation with journalists after Tuesday’s trial of the criminal case against Robert Kocharyan, former CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov, former Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan, and former Deputy PM Armen Gevorgyan—and which did not take place due to the prosecution’s absence from the courtroom.

"The prosecutors, who had always stated that the [court] process is being delayed, did not appear at today's hearing. No prosecutors were found in the prosecutor's office; this is because they were afraid. There is no other logic," the lawyer said.

Speaking about the distribution of votes of the judges of the Constitutional Court, Vardevanyan confirmed that the decision to declare Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code unconstitutional and to invalidate it was in fact unanimous.

"The criminal prosecution against Yuri Khachaturov and Seyran Ohanyan is illegal. Prosecutors could have come and say that they are preparing a motion. But being afraid is a disgrace," Vardevanyan said.

And when asked about the possibility of re-qualifying the charge, the lawyer noted that such an assumption simply causes laughter. "The Criminal Code unequivocally assumes that re-qualification can be talked about only in the presence of new factual data," the attorney responded, adding that such an assumption shows incompetence and insult to the investigation. "Article 300.1 contains all the elements of other articles. In fact, the article is disgracefully uncertain. We have been talking about illegality since day one," Aram Vardevanyan said.