Court rules to terminate prosecution of ex-Armenian president Kocharyan

YEREVAN, April 6. /ARKA/. A first instance court in Yerevan chaired by Judge Anna Danibekyan ruled today to terminate the criminal prosecution of ex-president Robert Kocharyan and three other defendants under Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code. They all were charged with overthrowing the constitutional order.

Late in March Armenia's Constitutional Court ruled that Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code that was used to prosecute Kocharyan for “overthrowing the constitutional order” runs counter to articles 78 and 79 of the Constitution.

Today's court ruling was made after the consideration of the  defendants' lawyers' appeals. Judge Danibekyan said the court decided to reject the defense's petition to remove or reduce the size of the bail paid for Kocharyan to be outside of jail pending the end of the trial.

Earlier, Kocharyan's lawyers filed a petition to end the criminal prosecution under Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code against the ex-president and other defendants in the March 1 case and to terminate the proceedings under this article. They referred to the recent decision of the Constitutional Court, which declared unconstitutional and invalid article 300.1 of the Criminal Code (overthrow of the constitutional order).

The defense of the former president declared the absence of a crime event, the prosecutor's office objected, suggesting that the court appeal to the Constitutional Court to determine the constitutionality of some provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code of Armenia in connection with which the re-qualification of the case under another article becomes impossible.

Kocharyan’s case dates back to late February and early March 2008 following the disputed presidential election, when then prime minister Serzh Sargsyan was declared the winner, angering the opposition, that was led by the first Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrosyan who set off 10 days of nonstop protests that led to a crackdown on March 1, in which 10 people were killed and more than 200 injured.

Kocharyan, as well as chief of his staff Armen Gevorgyan, former chief of army's staff General Yuri Khachaturov and former minister of defense Seyran Ohanyan have been charged with usurping state power during the March 1, 2008 post-election protests. -0-