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The defense team of Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan are going to file a new complaint to the Court of Appeals against the ruling of the First Instance Court on the arrest of the ex-president, Kocharyan’s lawyer Hayk Alumyan told reporters on Thursday.

He said the appeal is based on the wiretapping of a telephone conversation between Director of the National Security Service Artur Vanetyan and Special Investigative Service Head Sasun Khachatryan, as well as the news conference that followed.

Meantime, the Yerevan Court of Appeals continues hearings on the appeal of state prosecutors against Kocharyan’s release from pre-trial detention in August on the basis of immunity.

The former president’s lawyers have also appealed against that ruling, claiming that there were also other legal grounds for his release.

On Thursday, the appellate court rejected a motion filed by Kocharyan’s defense team to replace judge Ruben Mkhitaryan assigned to the case by a draw. They claimed that selecting a judge in this way violates the Armenian law.

Kocharyan is charged with overthrowing Armenia’s constitutional order during the March 1-2, 2008 post-election events in Yerevan. He denies the charges as ‘politically motivated’.