YEREVAN. – The 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 has resumed Friday at the court of general jurisdiction of Yerevan.

These court sessions are usually held on Tuesdays. But presiding Judge Anna Danibekyan made an exception this time, explaining that Karen Mejlumyan, the lawyer of Seyran Ohanyan, will be on vacation as of Saturday.

This is the second court trial 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 id aforesaid defendants are charged under this very article of the Criminal Code.

In fact, the court needs to terminate these defendants’ criminal prosecution under the said article, as well as of others who are charged with similar charges in this criminal case.

Nonetheless, the court on Tuesday refused to discontinue this criminal prosecution, and adjourned the hearing due to the absence of the prosecution.

It is not ruled out that an attempt will be made to re-qualify the charge.