The Constitutional Court of Armenia has issued a statement that touches upon the likelihood of appealing the case of second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan and other ex-officials.

The statement reads as follows:

“The Staff of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia, in response to certain press releases according to which the application of the Yerevan court of general jurisdiction “On applying to the Constitutional Court and on suspending the case proceedings” (Decision of 20 May 2019 (Criminal Case No ED/0253/01/19) deprives the parties to the procedure of the opportunity to appeal the Decision since the criminal case has been forwarded to the Constitutional Court along with all the case materials, and the Criminal Court of Appeal may not examine the appeal without the case materials, informs that unlike point 6 of Article 71 of the Constitutional Law of the Republic of Armenia “On the Constitutional Court” as edited in 2006 (“The case of the applicant in proceedings shall be attached to the application and be returned to the applicant upon adoption of the decision of the Constitutional Court”), Article 71 of the Constitutional Law “On the Constitutional Court” no longer prescribes such a requirement.

Thus, in case Judge Davit Grigoryan of the Yerevan court of general jurisdiction submits a relevant letter to the Constitutional Court, the materials of the criminal case attached to the application may be returned.

In further stages of case examination, those materials may, if necessary, be requested by the Constitutional Court, pursuant to Article 42 of the Constitutional Law “On the Constitutional Court”.

Returning the materials of the criminal case attached to the application may not, in case of the aforementioned arrangements, impact the future course of examination of the case in the Constitutional Court as prescribed by the Constitutional Law “On the Constitutional Court”.”