“Number of lawyers insisted that the Constitutional Court decision on ex-President Robert Kocharyan’s appeal was unlawful and I used to take those statements cautiously, yet the special opinions published by individual judges of the Court proved the Constitutional Court decision was indeed unlawful,” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated at a press conference on Monday.
“Why did the Constitutional Court issue an unlawful ruling? You may know who is the President of the Constitutional Court, how he was appointed to the post, with the help of whom and for whom,” Pashinyan said. The PM next welcomed the statement of the Armenian Parliament Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan who earlier described the Constitutional Court ruling as ‘ungrounded’ and ‘biased’ and suggested the parliament to express its position on the developments around the Court.
To remind, in early September Armenia’s Constitutional Court ruled that the arrest of former President Robert Kocharyan was "unconstitutional" while reviewing two articles of the Code of Procedural Justice regarding the ex-president’s arrest. The Court cited in its decision the constitutional provision of immunity of high-level officials from prosecution, partly approving the ex-president’s appeal.
The Court ruling prompted the ex-President defense team to file motions to the Yerevan Court of first instance to immediately release Kocharyan from arrest and drop charges against him. Prosecutors, however, insisted the Constitutional Court decision may not apply to the case under consideration and there were no grounds to free the ex-president, arguing ex-president’s legal immunity didn’t extend to the accusations brought against him.
The first instance court is expected to announce its ruling on September 17.
Robert Kocharyan faces charges of overthrowing the constitutional order during the post-electoral events in March 1-2, 2008. The ex-president is currently in custody pending trial. Kocharyan and his defense team strongly deny the charges and call the criminal prosecution “politically motivated”.