We have not yet received the Court of Appeal’s decision, we will get the decision within a day or two, [and] we will consider that matter and take a congruent appeal in connection with the matters that are noted in that decision.

Vahagn Muradyan, head of the Department of Investigation of Especially Important Cases at the Prosecutor General’s Office of Armenia, stated about the aforesaid. He noted this responding to the queries by the activists who, after crashing second President’s Robert Kocharyan’s expected press conference, staged a protest outside the attorney general’s office.

When asked whether the Prosecutor General’s Office had submitted an exclusion with respect to the presiding appellate court judge—considering that the latter had worked in the second President’s staff, Muradyan said no petition for exclusion was submitted. 

As per Vahagn Muradyan, even though many people have worked with Kocharyan, this does not mean that this should be an obstacle to performing their duties.

Subsequently, the activists headed toward the Ministry of Justice to continue their demonstration.  

As reported earlier, second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan, former Defense Minister Mikayel Harutyunyan, and incumbent Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Secretary General and Armenia’s former Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Khachaturov have been charged within the framework of the criminal case into the tragic events that transpired in capital city Yerevan on March 1 and 2, 2008—and under Article 300.1 Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code; that is, breaching Armenia’s constitutional order, in conspiracy with others.

Since Harutyunyan is not in Armenia, a search for him was declared. On July 27, Khachaturov was released on bail, whereas Kocharyan was remanded in custody for two months by a court decision. But on Monday, the Court of Appeal granted Robert Kocharyan’s legal defenders’ appeal to commute the first-instance court’s decision on remanding their client in custody, and Kocharyan was released from courtroom on the grounds that he has immunity. But sometime thereafter, the Special Investigation Service stated that the decision to release Kocharyan was unlawful, and expressed the hope that the Prosecutor General’s Office will appeal this decision at the Court of Cassation.

On March 1 and 2, 2008, the then authorities used force against the opposition members who were rallying in downtown Yerevan, and against the results of the recent presidential election. Eight demonstrators as well as two servicemen of the internal troops were killed in the clashes. But no one had been brought to account for these deaths, to this day.