It followed a disputed presidential election in which former President Levon Ter-Petrosian was the main opposition candidate. Scores of his supporters clashed with riot police on March 1-2, 2008 during an opposition rally in central Yerevan led by Nikol Pashinian, then a newspaper editor. Eight protesters and two police servicemen died in the violence that led outgoing President Robert Kocharian to declare a state of emergency and order Armenian army units into the capital.
Dozens of people, including Pashinian, were arrested and jailed in an ensuing crackdown on the Ter-Petrosian-led opposition accused of plotting to overthrow the government. Investigators completely changed the official version of events after Pashinian swept to power in 2018.
Kocharian and about a dozen former officials were indicted in connection with the crackdown. Some of them, including the ex-president, were acquitted by courts while others fled Armenia.
The suspects also included Gegham Petrosian, who was a deputy commander of Armenian interior troops during the 2008 clashes. A law-enforcement agency now called the Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) arrested him in June 2019 on charges of killing one of the opposition demonstrators.
Petrosian, who denied the accusations, was set free two months later pending investigation. The ACC chief, Sasun Khachatrian, insisted at the time that investigators have sufficient evidence to prosecute him.
However, a prosecutor overseeing the protracted investigation cited a lack of such evidence when he decided to clear the former officer of wrongdoing earlier this month. The Office of the Prosecutor-General on Thursday declined to elaborate on the decision. Khachatrian’s agency also did not comment on it.
Petrosian is the first and only person indicted in connection with the ten deaths. Pashinian has repeatedly pledged to have those responsible for them identified and brought to justice.
His critics have denounced relevant criminal proceedings launched during Pashinian’s rule as politically motivated. Some of them have also accused the premier of inciting the 2008 clashes.
Pashinian played a major role in Ter-Petrosian’s 2007-2008 opposition movement. He fell out with the ex-president after being released from jail in 2011.