Kocharyan tells court AI called his prosecution 'absurd'

Former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan told the Anti-Corruption Court that an artificial intelligence system determined it was “impossible” for a person to face criminal proceedings without a corresponding criminal charge.

Speaking during a hearing on Monday, Kocharyan said he had asked an AI model whether such a legal situation could exist. “After working for a long time and processing the data, it told me this is absurd, impossible,” he told the judge. According to Kocharyan, the AI system responded that it found no example “anywhere in the world in the past 100 years” where an individual could be treated as a defendant without a specific criminal article.

“If we act rationally, this hearing shouldn’t be taking place,” the ex-president said, adding that although he appears in court to avoid claims he is evading proceedings, he views the case as baseless. “I come here out of goodwill, but my inner conviction is that what you are doing is absurd,” he said, asking the judge to present any example contradicting the AI’s conclusion if it exists.

Kocharyan, former Chief of the General Staff and CSTO Secretary-General Yuri Khachaturov and former Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan were previously charged with overthrowing the constitutional order. While the case was pending, Armenia’s Constitutional Court struck down the relevant article of the Criminal Code as unconstitutional.

In September 2024, the Armenian Court of Cassation overturned the lower court's ruling to dismiss the case and allowed prosecutors to reclassify the charges.

Presiding judge Sargis Petrosyan was a candidate from Shirak Province for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's My Step bloc during the 2018 parliamentary elections.