Kocharyan’s lawyers claim appellate court hasn’t given them arrest ruling copy

The attorneys of Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan claim the Yerevan appellate court has failed to provide them with the copy of the court ruling on rearresting the ex-president.

The Yerevan Court of Appeals, under presiding judge Ruben Mkhitaryan, upheld on Friday the ruling of a first instance court on remanding Kocharyan into custody.

“The Court of Appeals hasn’t provided the defense team with a copy of its ruling as of 12:30pm December 10, claiming it isn’t ready yet,” the lawyers said.

According to them, the move is aimed at obstructing them from appealing to the European Court of Human Rights as soon as possible.

Kocharyan was arrested in July on charges of overthrowing Armenia’s constitutional order during the March 1-2, 2008 post-election events.

He was released by the Court of Appeals on 13 August on the basis of immunity from prosecution.

Both the attorney general and Kocharyan’s defense team appealed that ruling, with the latter claiming that there were also other legal grounds for his release.

On 15 November, the Court of Cassation rejected Kocharyan’s appeal and only partly satisfied the prosecutors’ demands to send the case back to the Court of Appeals for re-examination.

Kocharyan denies the charges as ‘politically motivated’.