Yerevan court considering appeal to commute ex-President Kocharyan’s arrest ruling

The Yerevan Court of Appeals is today examining the appeal against the arrest ruling issued against former President Robert Kocharyan, who is charged with usurping power in the period of March 2008 post-election unrest.

The court sitting, under the presiding judge Alexander Azaryan, is being held behind closed door, reports Panorama.am.

The ex-president’s attorneys appealed the ruling of the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction to remand Kocharyan in pre-trial custody for two months.
 
Earlier on Wednesday, the Armenian Prosecutor General's Office rejected a petition signed by 45 MPs, requesting the law enforcement authorities to reconsider the measure of restraint imposed on Kocharyan.

Armenia’s Special Investigative Service has charged him with overthrowing the constitutional order in the country with a group of people in the scope of the criminal case launched into the March 2008 post-election crackdown in Armenia, which left eight civilians and two police officers dead.   

Kocharyan, who served as Armenia’s president at the time of March 1, 2008, declared a 20-day state of emergency, with the approval of the Armenian parliament, banning future demonstrations and charged for “illegally mobilizing Armenia’s Armed Forces against peaceful demonstrators,” that was qualified as a “breach of constitutional order.”

He has not pleaded guilty, claiming the charges are ‘politically motivated.’