No instructions given to Armenia’s judicial system, including ex-president Kocharyan’s case, Pashinyan says
09.12.2018,
16:53
No instructions were given to Armenia’s judicial system, including the case of ex-president Robert Kocharyan, the acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said today after voting in the first ever snap parliamentary elections.
YEREVAN, December 9. /ARKA/. No instructions were given to Armenia’s judicial system, including the case of ex-president Robert Kocharyan, the acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said today after voting in the first ever snap parliamentary elections. "I officially declare that the judicial system of Armenia has never been more independent than today," said Pashinyan.
Regarding the leaked wiretapped conversation between him and the chief of the National Security Service Arthur Vanetsyan, Pashinyan said that only proves the fact that he was unaware of what was happening at that time.
‘The head of the National Security Service calls me and says that they are arresting the former secretary general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Yuri Khachaturov, and I ask “When?” This means that I learned about that from Vanetsyan. As for the content of the conversation between Vanetsyan and the head of the Special Investigation Service, it is a telephone conversation and they are not obliged to cite the articles of the Penal Code or Constitution," said Pashinyan.
A 7-minute audio was posted on YouTube earlier this month with three phone calls made by Arthur Vanetsyan to Pashinyan from Switzerland in July in which they speak about criminal charges brought against former president Robert Kocharyan and Yuri Khachaturov, the then secretary general of the (CSTO).
On December 7 Armenia’s Court of Appeals upheld the judgment of a lower court on remanding Robert Kocharyan. Kocharyan, who served two terms as president in 1998-2008, is charged with toppling constitutional order in collusion with other persons in 2008 March.
A Yerevan district court allowed this past summer the Special Investigative Service (SIS) to detain Kocharyan for two months in pre-trial detention pending investigation. However, he was released from custody on June 13 after the Court of Appeals ruled that he could not be prosecuted for the 2008 March 1 post-election violence.
The court based its decision on Article 140 of the Armenian Constitution, which says that during the term of his or her powers and thereafter, the President of the Republic may not be prosecuted and subjected to liability for actions deriving from his or her status. That ruling was denounced by the Special Investigative Service, which described it as illegal, saying that the Court of Appeals “overstepped the bounds of its authority.”
The 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, led by the first Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrosyan and setting 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.
The same charge is brought against Yuri Khachaturov, who had been the chief of the Yerevan garrison at the time of the bloody events. Khachaturov was detained by then released on a 5 million dram bail. Also former defense minister Mikael Harutyunyan is wanted by the law-enforcement authorities as a defendant in the case. He is accused of illegally using the Armenian armed forces against opposition supporters who demonstrated in Yerevan in the wake of the disputed presidential election held in February 2008. -0---
Regarding the leaked wiretapped conversation between him and the chief of the National Security Service Arthur Vanetsyan, Pashinyan said that only proves the fact that he was unaware of what was happening at that time.
‘The head of the National Security Service calls me and says that they are arresting the former secretary general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Yuri Khachaturov, and I ask “When?” This means that I learned about that from Vanetsyan. As for the content of the conversation between Vanetsyan and the head of the Special Investigation Service, it is a telephone conversation and they are not obliged to cite the articles of the Penal Code or Constitution," said Pashinyan.
A 7-minute audio was posted on YouTube earlier this month with three phone calls made by Arthur Vanetsyan to Pashinyan from Switzerland in July in which they speak about criminal charges brought against former president Robert Kocharyan and Yuri Khachaturov, the then secretary general of the (CSTO).
On December 7 Armenia’s Court of Appeals upheld the judgment of a lower court on remanding Robert Kocharyan. Kocharyan, who served two terms as president in 1998-2008, is charged with toppling constitutional order in collusion with other persons in 2008 March.
A Yerevan district court allowed this past summer the Special Investigative Service (SIS) to detain Kocharyan for two months in pre-trial detention pending investigation. However, he was released from custody on June 13 after the Court of Appeals ruled that he could not be prosecuted for the 2008 March 1 post-election violence.
The court based its decision on Article 140 of the Armenian Constitution, which says that during the term of his or her powers and thereafter, the President of the Republic may not be prosecuted and subjected to liability for actions deriving from his or her status. That ruling was denounced by the Special Investigative Service, which described it as illegal, saying that the Court of Appeals “overstepped the bounds of its authority.”
The 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, led by the first Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrosyan and setting 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.
The same charge is brought against Yuri Khachaturov, who had been the chief of the Yerevan garrison at the time of the bloody events. Khachaturov was detained by then released on a 5 million dram bail. Also former defense minister Mikael Harutyunyan is wanted by the law-enforcement authorities as a defendant in the case. He is accused of illegally using the Armenian armed forces against opposition supporters who demonstrated in Yerevan in the wake of the disputed presidential election held in February 2008. -0---
