ITAR-TASS
Saturday 2:50 PM GMT
Ex-Armenian president released on bail due to Karabakh leaders’ personal guarantees
YEREVAN May 18
HIGHLIGHT: Yerevan’s court released on bail former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, accused of toppling the legitimate government in 2008, on Saturday following personal guarantees from the former and incumbent leaders of unrecognized republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, Boko Saakyan and Arkady Gukasyan, TASS reported from the courtroom.
YEREVAN, May 18. /TASS/. Yerevan’s court released on bail former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, accused of toppling the legitimate government in 2008, on Saturday following personal guarantees from the former and incumbent leaders of unrecognized republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, Boko Saakyan and Arkady Gukasyan, TASS reported from the courtroom.
"The court has ruled that Robert Kocharyan be released from custody under personal guarantees from Boko Saakyan and Arkady Gukasyan," Judge David Grigoryan read out.
On April 29, the Armenian Prosecutor General’s Office upheld the indictment in the so-called March 1 case against former President Robert Kocharyan, former Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan, former Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (a military assembly of post-Soviet republics) Yuri Khachaturov and former Defense Minister Seiran Oganyan and submitted the case to court.
Armenia was rocked by a series of protests in the wake of the presidential election held on February 19, 2008. The protesters strongly opposed its official results, with Serzh Sargsyan winning the race. The protests were organized by supporters of first Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosyan who had presidential ambitions at that time. In the emerging clashes, about eight protesters and two police officers were killed and 33 more police officers were admitted to hospitals with injuries. About 230 people asked for medical assistance then.
After the change of power on May 8, 2018, the investigation into the March 1 riots was restarted resulting in Kocharyan’s arrest. Besides, charges were pressed against some other high-ranking officials, including Khachaturov and Gevorgyan.
In December 2018, Armenia’s Court of Appeals upheld the first instance court’s ruling to arrest the former head of the republic who is accused of overturning the constitutional system in 2008. On the same day, Kocharyan decided not to wait for the enforcement of the court award and appeared at the National Security Service’s detention facility in person.