A court in Yerevan on Friday postponed until January 9 its decision on whether to grant bail to former President Robert Kocharian arrested this month for his role in the deadly breakup of 2008 opposition protests.
Kocharian’s lawyers had asked the district court to release him on bail, arguing, among other things, that he did not attempt to obstruct justice after being set free in August.
One of the lawyers, Aram Orbelian, said the presiding judge suspended the hearings shortly after they began late in the afternoon. He blamed the Special Investigative Service (SIS), the law-enforcement body prosecuting Kocharian, for the judge’s decision to resume them on January 9.
“It turned out that our investigative bodies are extremely busy and cannot attend court hearings after work hours,” Orbelian told reporters. “The judge granted the investigator’s request to delay the proceedings on the case.”
The lawyer dismissed the official rationale for the delay, saying that Armenian courts routinely make decisions on pretrial arrests even during night hours.
Kocharian stands accused of illegally using Armenian army units against opposition supporters who protested against alleged fraud in a disputed presidential election held in February 2008. The SIS says that amounted to an overthrow of the constitutional order.
Eight protesters and two police personnel were killed when security forces quelled the protests on March 1-2, 2008.
The 64-year-old ex-president, who ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, vehemently denies the charges, saying that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian is waging a political “vendetta” against him.
Pashinian played a key role in the 2008 protests and spent nearly two years in prison because of that. He has strongly defended the criminal case against Kocharian.
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