Kocharyan`s lawyer: For all my long practice as a lawyer, I have not seen such an illiterate case
ArmInfo. The accusation of the second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan in overthrowing the Constitutional system is not only fabricated, but also extremely illiterate from the legal point of view. Kocharyan's lawyer Ruben
Sahakyan told during press conference today.
"Believe me, I faced many cases, many of them were illiterate, but I
have not seen such an illiterate case in my long practice as a
lawyer," he said. Sahakyan assured that in the near future all
charges from Kocharyan will be lifted due to the absence of corpus
delicti. "But this is the case if the investigation is conducted
fairly, but the process that has begun and the tendencies give rise
to doubt. Firstly, Kocharyan was invited to the investigative body as
a witness and there he immediately changed his status without
warning. In addition, the court rejected our appeal not to apply the
arrest as a preventive measure without any explanation, in general,
this bad practice was applied at the time of all three presidents,
when the most severe penalty was applied. We thought that after the
velvet revolution the situation would change for the better, but we
were wrong," he said, while saying that lawyers filed a motion to
release Kocharyan on pledge, but that was also rejected.
Sahakyan refused to name the amount of the pledge offered for
Kocharyan, saying only that it was much less than 1 billion AMD (this
was the amount that was contributed for the release of security chief
of Serzh Sargsyan Vachagan Ghazaryan, accused of illegal enrichment).
The lawyer considered another manifestation of the tendentious
attitude of the investigative body towards Kocharyan that the
decision to arrest was made immediately, while the law provides for
this with 72 hours. "Definitely, this is an order of whom I can not
say but guess, and if Prime Minister Pashinyan does not interfere in
this process, it will be difficult to wait for justice," said
Sahakyan, stressing that the true perpetrators are currently in the
Special Investigative Service, in the Prosecutor General's Office and
even other places.
Kocharyan's second lawyer, Aram Orbelyan, tried to explain various
interpretations of whether the second president can enjoy
unquestionable immunity. "First, I must say that those who are guilty
are usually appealing for the right to immunity, in this case,
Kocharyan is not guilty, and here he does not have to rely on his
immunity, but nevertheless, I would like to dispel those rumors
regarding whether Kocharyan acted proceeding from his presidential
powers or not, it is on this that determines whether he can exercise
the right to immunity or not. So, the answer is definitely - yes,
acted on the basis of his presidential powers, because a civilian can
not call the defense minister, other high-ranking officials, hold
meetings with them, take decisions on this basis, including on the
state of emergency, which will have legal force.
Concerning the issue of the legitimacy of the announcement in 2008 of
the state of emergency and the decisions of the Constitutional Court
on the recognition of the results of the presidential elections,
Orbelyan recalled that in 2008 the Council of Europe, by its two
resolutions, urged the Armenian opposition to recognize the decision
of the Constitutional Court, and the National Assembly, by its
decision, about the declaration of emergency. "So here, too, our
legal framework is very strong, the decisions fully comply with
Armenia's legislation and international legal norms," the lawyer
said.
As for involving the army in political processes, then, as Orbelyan
noted, everything is clearly stated in the legislation of the
republic. "The Supreme Court has the right to intervene in situations
that pose a threat to the security of the state, and threats can be
not only external but also internal, and the president is the
guarantor of state security, the conclusions are asking for
themselves," Orbelyan concluded.