Lawyers for former President Robert Kocharian have asked Armenia’s Constitutional Court to declare unconstitutional a legal provision which they believe paved the way for his renewed arrest in December.
The lawyers referred to a clause in the Armenian Code of Procedural Justice which was used by prosecutors in their successful appeal against Kocharian’s release from custody in August.
The Court of Appeals ordered the release on the grounds that the ex-president enjoys legal immunity from prosecution on charges stemming from the deadly breakup of post-election opposition protests in 2008.
Acting on the prosecutors’ appeal, the higher Court of Cassation ordered the Court of Appeals in November to examine the case anew. The latter allowed law-enforcement authorities to press charges against Kocharian and arrest him on December 7.
Kocharian’s lawyers said that the Court of Cassation should have thrown out the prosecutors’ appeal if it had followed the Armenian constitution, rather than the judicial code clause.
The lawyers appealed to the Constitutional Court on Tuesday, the day before a district court in Yerevan resumed hearings on their petition to free Kocharian on bail.
The court session was adjourned shortly afterwards, however, with prosecutors demanding that the case be assigned to another judge. They argued that the presiding judge, Nelly Baghdasarian, had recused herself from dealing with another suspect in the 2008 unrest case because of a possible conflict of interest.
Baghdasarian will announce on Thursday afternoon whether she accepts the prosecution’s demand.
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. Law-enforcement authorities say 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. Investigators deny any political motives behind his arrest.
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