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Armenia’s former President Robert Kocharyan will remain into custody for two months according to a Yerevan court ruling issued on Friday, the member of the ex-president’s defense team Aram Orbelyan told reporters. According to him, the court has declined the motion of the defense team to release the president on bail and instead approved the prosecutor’s motion to extend arrest as a pre-trial detention measure. 

Kocharyan’s lawyers filed a motion to a Yerevan court of general jurisdiction to free the ex-president on bail on 26 December 2018, asking the court to determine its amount. On December 28, the court delayed the hearing of the appeal. Meantime, the investigators have petitioned the court to extend the pre-trial arrest of the former president. 

To remind, Armenia’s second President Kocharyan is in custody since December 7, 2018, pending trial. He is charged with overthrowing Armenia’s constitutional order during the March 1-2, 2008 post-election events in Yerevan. Kocharyan and his lawyers strongly deny the charges as ‘politically motivated’.