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Protest gatherings are underway on December 11 in the Armenian capital Yerevan with the participants demanding the release of Armenia’s former President Robert Kocharyan currently placed in detention. As the organizers announced earlier on their Facebook page they are struggling for justice and establishment of law in Armenia.

“No law operates in Armenia today as a result of which the hero of Artsakh and the second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan is arrested,” member of the initiative group Armen Minasyan stated, adding the struggle will be long unless the Constriction and the laws of Armenia are respected and the damage to the reputation and honor of the ex-president is restored.

The protesters next marched from the Republic Square to the Prosecutor-General's Office. “Robert Kocharyan is the first political prisoner of the velvet revolution. We will break the atmosphere of fear as most of our supporters are afraid to come and stand by us,” Minasyan said in front of the Prosecutor-General’s Office. 

To remind, Kocharyan was arrested in July on charges of overthrowing Armenia’s constitutional order during the March 1-2, 2008 post-election events. He was released by the Court of Appeals on 13 August on the basis of immunity from prosecution. On 15 November, the Court of Cassation rejected Kocharyan’s appeal and only partly satisfied the prosecutors’ demands to send the case back to the Court of Appeals for re-examination. On December 7, Armenia’s Court of Appeals upheld the first instance court’s ruling to arrest Robert Kocharyan who is accused of overturning the constitutional system.

Kocharyan and his lawyers strongly deny the charges as ‘politically motivated’.