Armenia’s jailed former President Robert Kocharian underwent surgery at a hospital in Yerevan on Wednesday.
The chief doctor of the Izmirlian Medical Center, Armen Charchian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that the operation was successful. For privacy reasons he refused to reveal the medical condition Kocharian suffered from.
Kocharian was taken to the private hospital from a prison in downtown Yerevan on Tuesday for the third time in just over a week. His younger son Levon insisted last week that the 65-year-old ex-president does not have serious health problems.
One of Kocharian’s lawyers, Hayk Alumian, could not say whether he will be fit enough to attend the next hearing of his ongoing trial scheduled for October 15. “I think that based on the dynamics even the doctors can’t tell that at the moment,” said Alumian.
Alumian also said that Kocharian’s legal team has no plans yet to use the surgery for again demanding his release from prison.
The judge presiding over the trial, Anna Danibekian, twice refused last month to free the ex-president pending a verdict in the case. The defense lawyers accused her of acting on government orders and being biased against their client.
Kocharian, who was arrested again in June, stands trial on coup and corruption charges mostly stemming from the 2008 post-election violence in Yerevan. He rejects them as politically motivated.
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