The Special Investigation Service (SIS) statement on the appellate court decision to release Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan is a means to play with people’s emotions and to manipulate.

Hayk Alumyan, one of Kocharyan’s legal defenders, said the abovementioned at a press conference on Thursday.

“SIS speaks on behalf of the entire people and the state, but the judicial act cannot be considered unlawful—on behalf of the Republic of Armenia,” the attorney noted. “Such statements are unlawful in themselves.

“This is a severe pressure on the [court] judge as well (…); this is impermissible.”

Also, Alumyan expressed a view that, in this way, the SIS wants to butter up the incumbent authorities.

As reported earlier, second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan has 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.

On July 27, 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 presidential 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.