Court adjourns hearing on CSTO Secretary General

YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. The court adjourned the hearing over the motion to remand CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov into pre-trial detention, the general’s attorney Mihran Poghosyan told reporters.

“The hearing was adjourned with the purpose to provide the right to defense and sufficient time for studying the charges,” the attorney said.

He said his client has not been issued with a clarification over the nature and grounds of the indictment.

He said that two hearings have already taken place today. The first hearing took place 11:30, and Khachaturov was not informed about it. “Only after my notification Khachaturov arrived at court at 15:00,” the attorney said.

He said that the adjourned hearing will resume today after 18:00.

Amid an ongoing investigation into the March 1 case, the Special Investigative Service (SIS) of Armenia has charged CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov, the Armenian general who served as deputy minister of defense in 2008, with article 300.1 paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code – breaching constitutional order in conspiracy with others – the same accusation faced by former President Robert Kocharyan.

The SIS has filed a motion to court seeking an arrest warrant to remand the general in custody.

In a statement, the SIS said it charged Khachaturov “based on sufficient evidence”.

Khachaturov was appointed head of CSTO, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, in 2017.

He denies wrongdoing.

The March 1 case is an ongoing investigation into the deadly 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan. Kocharyan was the outgoing president at the time, as Serzh Sargsyan was named winner of the presidential election. Mass protests erupted in Yerevan, which led to fatal clashes between security forces and demonstrators.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan