Your trusted source

Tuesday’s press conference of former President Robert Kocharyan, charged over the March 1-2, 2008 events in the Armenian capital, failed to take place amid a wave of protests erupted in Yerevan against the appellate court ruling to release Kocharyan from pre-trial custody.

A group of demonstrators, including some famous activists, burst into the hall in Yerevan’s Erebuni Plaza business center, where the ex-president was expected to hold the news conference after a while, trying to have it cancelled.

One of the protesters told reporters Kocharyan’s conference was already cancelled, announcing they can already leave the hall.   

“Armenia has saw a revolution, which is already an irreversible fact. The authorities in Armenia act in line with the powers vested in them by the Constitution, trying to implement justice in Armenia on the scope of them,” Davit Petrosyan, a student protest leader, told reporters. 

“Apart from the authorities, there are free and independents citizens in Armenia, who are ready to participate in the process of restoring justice at any moment. We are not going to tolerate injustice in our country.”

Moreover, one of the activists laid on the floor holding a small poster with March 1 victims’ photos at hand. 

Afterwards, the protesting crown headed to the Prosecutor General’s Office to demand the ex-leader’s arrest, chanting, “Kocharyan, murderer”.

As reported earlier, the Court of Appeals, under the presiding judge Alexander Azaryan, approved on Monday the motion of Kocharyan’s attorneys to commute the arrest ruling against the ex-president charged over March 1-2, 2008 events in capital Yerevan.

As one of the attorneys, Robert Sahakyan told reporters on Monday, the court justified its decision with the constitutional provision of immunity from persecution for former presidents.

The Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction ruled to remand Kocharyan into custody for two months on 27 July. The former president was taken into custody from the court hall, accused of “overthrowing the constitutional order in the country with a group of people” in the scope of the criminal investigation into the post-election crackdown following the presidential elections of 2008, which left eight civilians and two police officers dead.    

Kocharyan has dismissed the charges as politically motivated.