Constitutional Court rejects Kocharyan’s appeal

YEREVAN, JANUARY 30, ARMENPRESS. The Constitutional Court of Armenia has rejected to launch proceedings over arrested former President Robert Kocharyan’s appeal.

Kocharyan had appealed to the Constitutional Court on January 8, arguing the constitutionality behind the Cassation Court’s earlier launch of proceedings based on the Prosecutor General’s complaint. The Prosecutor General had filed a complaint over Kocharyan’s release. Kocharyan was later re-arrested.

“According to the decision of the Constitutional Court, the fact that the constitutional justice field is outside of the Court of Cassation’s circle of functions in accordance to paragraph 1, article 171 of the Constitution, doesn’t mean that the Court of Cassation isn’t authorized to interpret and apply the Constitution,” the Constitutional Court said in part a lengthy press release.

2nd 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