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Judicial systems in countries as diverse as Moldova and Armenia were vulnerable to political pressure according to Amnesty International’s annual 2019 report for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The report published on April 16 states that when the court released Robert Kocharyan on bail in May 2019, Prime Minister Nicol Pashinyan had called for a comprehensive reform of the judiciary, publicly criticised the judges for the decision to release him and urged his supporters to block court buildings.

The source reminded that former President Robert Kocharyan was arrested for the third time on 25 June 2019, after being charged in 2018 with “overthrowing the constitutional order” and bribe-taking. “The prosecution argued that the former President had been responsible for the violent dispersal, resulting in 10 deaths, of the March 2008 protests against what the thenopposition believed to be fraudulent elections. Robert Kocharyan denounced the charges as unfounded and politically motivated and accused the government of undue pressure on the judiciary,” the report read.

It is noted that other former high-level government officials also faced prosecution in connection with the violent dispersal of the March 2008 protests and other alleged instances of abuses of power; proceedings were ongoing at the end of the year.