YEREVAN, AUGUST 30, ARMENPRESS. Head of the Special Investigation Service Sasun Khachatryan commented on the proposal of 2nd President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan to disclose the confidentiality of the preliminary investigation over the 2008 March 1 criminal case, Armenpress reports.

The SIS chief told reporters after today’s Cabinet session that there is no procedure of revealing the confidentiality of the preliminary investigation.

“Can you imagine what will happen if the confidentiality of the preliminary investigation is disclosed in the whole? There are people who cooperate with the preliminary investigation, provide operative data. Can you imagine what will happen if all this is declassified?”, he said.

He stated that the confidentiality refers only to the preliminary investigation stage. “During the trial the case is investigated in the court in an open-door format if it doesn’t contain state secret. And the confidentiality of the preliminary investigation derives from the interests of both the case and persons, therefore I don’t think that such demand is realistic”, the SIS chief said.

Robert Kocharyan has been charged on July 26 over the 2008 March 1 case, under the Article 300.1 part 1 of the Criminal Code for breaching the constitutional order of the Republic of Armenia. He has been remanded into custody. His attorneys appealed the court ruling. On August 13 the Court of Appeals approved the attorney’s appeal, and Robert Kocharyan has been released.

In one of his interviews Kocharyan said the charges brought against him are groundless. He urged to disclose the confidentiality of the preliminary investigation so that they can fully present the process of the preliminary investigation.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan