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The Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction resumed on Tuesday hearings in the trial of President Robert Kocharyan and three other former senior officials Armen Gevorgyan, Seyran Ohanyan and Yuri Khachaturov prosecuted in connection with the March 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan.

Both supporters and critics of the former president are again staging demonstrations outside the court building, trading insults.

One of the victim’s legal successor Tigran Yegoryan was absent from the court hearing, but there were no objections to continue it.

One of Kocharyan’s lawyers Hovhannes Khudoyan had petitioned presiding judge Anna Danibekyan, as well as prosecutor Petros Petrosyan to recuse themselves from the trial, the judge said.

Khudoyan argued that the rulings issued by the judge during the past few hearings, as well as certain information made available to defense lawyers served as a basis for the motion, asking the judge to grant it.

“Taking into consideration the periodic bias of the court, which is manifested by the successive denial of bail as a measure of restraint, as well as substantiation of those rejections by controversial legal norms, we are filing a self-withdrawal motion,” he said.

Another lawyer of Kocharyan Hayk Alumyan and the ex-president himself also joined the motion.