Kocharyan arrest hearing expected at appeals court

YEREVAN, JANUARY 29, ARMENPRESS. An appeals court is expected to start the hearing over former President Robert Kocharyan’s arrest case at 12:00 today, according to Kocharyan’s attorneys.

The court will hear Kocharyan’s complaint over a lower court’s earlier decision on extending the arrest for another two-months customary jail term and rejecting the former president’s bail request.

nd President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan, who ruled the country from 1998 to 2008, spent two weeks in jail in summer of 2018, but was eventually freed. But on December 7, a higher court overruled the release and ordered him to be remanded into custody pending trial again.

At the time the court announced the verdict, Kocharyan turned himself in to authorities.

Kocharyan is charged for ‘overthrowing constitutional order’ during the 2008 post-election unrest, when clashes between security forces and protesters left 10 people dead, including two police officers, during his final days as president.

He vehemently denies wrongdoing.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan