Armenian News. - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of Armenia-related top news:
· The court of general jurisdiction under the chair of Judge Anna Danibekyan rejected petition for the release of Armenia's second president Robert Kocharyan.
Earlier, Robert Kocharyan’s legal defense motioned the court to immediately terminate the criminal proceedings against Kocharyan and to immediately release him from custody—and on the basis of the recent Constitutional Court ruling.
His lawyers once again submitted a request for their release.
Kocharyan, who is accused of overthrowing the constitutional order along the lines of the March 1, 2008, in his turn, said that he has joined his attorney’s petition to release him on bail.
“Probably it’s hard for prosecutors to understand, but I am not the kind of person to hide, otherwise Azerbaijanis would be drinking tea in Stepanakert now,” he said. "A person’s biography speaks better of him than statements.”
The decision on the petition for the release of the second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan on bail will be announced on September 20 at 5 pm, said Judge Anna Danibekyan on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, protests were held near the court.
Police detained several protesters outside the court of the general jurisdiction in Yerevan.
Police urged not to disturb the normal course of the rallies and not to insult each other.
· The Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, on Saturday will travel to the United States on a working visit.
Pashinyan’s visit to the US will start in Los Angeles, where on Sunday he will attend and address at a rally at Grand Park.
From Los Angeles, the Prime Minister will head on to the Silicon Valley. Subsequently, PM Nikol Pashinyan will attend and address the 74th Session of the UN General Assembly, in New York. He is scheduled to meet with UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
Memorandums of understanding are also planned to be signed.
· One person has died as a result of a tragic road accident in Armenia’s Gegharkunik region last night. Around midnight the BMW X5 drive hit the roadside stones and ended up in a ditch. The car rolled over several times. The body of the deceased driver was found 80 meters from the wrecked car.
The man reportedly returned from Russia. The deceased was married with two children.
· Armenian national football squad captain Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s move to Roma has helped find a missing 13-year-old Kenyan child who was featured by Roma in its official announcement video on Mkhitaryan’s transfer.
As a result, the boy was found and successfully returned to his family.
Mkhitaryan also reflected on the finding of this missing child, calling it “a great news,” on his official Twitter account.
· World Wildlife Fund Armenia (WWF Armenia) has issued an official statement on exploitation of the Amulsar gold-bearing quartzite mine.
According to the statement, along with other threats, exploitation of the mine will also eliminate the habitat of endangered species and will physically harm most of them. The actions for conservation of the species, proposed in the Environmental Impact Assessment, are not sufficient, and the actions proposed in the plan for rehabilitation of biodiversity are incomplete and need to be reviewed. The study on the biodiversity of the Amulsar mine is incomplete.
The plan for rehabilitation of biodiversity in the Amulsar mine is mainly limited to the creation of Jermuk National Park, which has nothing to do with Amulsar and is another landscape and eco-system.
In 2016, the positive conclusion of the Environmental Impact Assessment for the Amulsar gold mine exploitation project was given without taking into consideration the opinions of the residents of Jermuk town, and we consider this a violation of human rights the statement said.