The court hearing over the case of second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan and other ex-officials has been postponed until September 8.

At the outset of today’s court hearing, Judge Anna Danibekyan informed the attendees that the court has received the statement by ex-official Yuri Khachaturov’s attorney Mihran Poghosyan according to which Poghosyan won’t be attending the court hearing due to issues that have suddenly emerged, and Khachaturov informed that he can’t call another attorney.

Prosecutor Gevorg Baghdasaryan said the attorney’s explanation was disrespectful and declared that the aim of the attorney’s statement is to postpone the court hearings, after which Robert Kocharyan’s attorney Aram Vardevanyan asked how a prosecutor could make such a statement.

The judge informed that on August 5, attorney Vardges Gevorgyan had informed that he will no longer be the attorney of former Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan, and the latter’s other attorney, Erik Alexanyan informed that he will be on leave until September 11. In this regard, the attorney asked to postpone today’s court hearing. The news made the defendants burst into outrage and blame the attorneys for delaying the process. The attorneys were reminded that the right to leave is enshrined by the Constitution, and the plaintiff hadn’t gone against the judge’s leave.

Tigran Yegoryan, attorney of one of the plaintiffs, filed a motion with the court to engage public defenders in order to defend the interests of the accused-on-trial in order to rule out such situations. Attorney Hayk Alumyan drew the court’s attention to the fact that Yegoryan had formulated his speech as an expression of his position and added that a motion can’t be considered now. The judge agreed that it can’t consider the motion now and recommended that Yegoryan reiterate the motion later. The judge also affirmed that everyone has the right to be on leave.