No grounds for keeping Kocharyan under arrest, lawyer insists
There are no grounds for keeping Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan in custody, one of his lawyers Hovhannes Khudoyan insisted on Tuesday.
His comments came after the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction of Shengavit District turned down a defense motion to release the former president and end his prosecution.
The lawyer stressed Kocharyan returned to Armenia immediately after being summoned for questioning in the criminal case launched against former Defense Minister Mikael Harutyunyan as part of the investigation into the March 1-2,2008 post-election unrest.
The lawyer recalled after being charged his client always showed up while being summoned by the investigative body.
“The prosecutors and investigator have never been able to present any argument on obstruction [of the proceedings]. Moreover, they have repeatedly stated that Mr. Kocharyan has no way impeded the investigation of the case,” Khudoyan said.
Kocharyan, who is charged with overthrowing Armenia’s constitutional order during the post-election events in 2008, decried the criminal case against him as ‘the most disgraceful’ in Armenia’s history on 12 September when the Yerevan district court resumed his and three other former officials’ trial.
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