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.