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Supporters of Armenia’s ex-president Robert Kocharyan are holding a protest outside a Yerevan court of general jurisdiction demanding an extraordinary court hearing to release the ex-president from custody.

The protestors hold signs reading “Freedom to President Kocharyan” “Immediate release.” Speaking to reporters, one of the participants of the protest stated the Constitutional Court had declared unconstitutional Article 35 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which implies that the criminal prosecution and arrest as a measure of restraint against Kocharyan are ‘unacceptable’.

“We strongly condemn keeping Kocharyan under arrest longer. We demand to free him not on the basis of inviolability but for innocence,’ one of the participants stated.

“We are here to remind that the Court should reconsider the detention measure for Kocharyan immediately and that is not our desire but the requirement of the law,” said another one.

To remind, earlier, ex-President Robert Kocharyan’s lawyers filed motion to the Yerevan court of general Jurisdiction to lift the arrest as the preventive detention measure and suspend the criminal prosecution against their client. In the motion addressee to the chairman of the court the lawyers also requested for urgent consideration and hearing of the matter. The court hearing is scheduled for September 12.