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.