ArmInfo.Any political force has the right to hold peaceful marches and demonstrations. The Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said this at a press conference in Yerevan commenting at the request of journalists on the intention of the Freedom to the President initiative group to begin the rally struggle demanding to release the second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan.
According to the statement of the initiative group, the current authorities of Armenia, "grossly violating the Constitution and the laws of the RA, exerting unprecedented strong pressure on the judges, violating the national interest of the Armenians and denouncing famous pages of recent history, illegally arrested the chairman of the NKR State Defense Committee, head of Artsakh during the years of its historic victories, the first president of the NKR and the national hero of Artsakh, the second president of the Republic of Armenia Robert Kocharian. " The group calls for the immediate release of the retired president and "to cease settling old scores with him." Meanwhile, according to Nikol Pashinyan there can be no talk on settling old scores, since Robert Kocharyan is not accused of some kind of conspiratorial actions. "What happened on March 1, 2008, was happening in front of everyone," he stressed.. He called for conducting media monitoring over the past 10 years on this case to ascertain whether it is a vendetta or not. "It is nothing more, than responsibility for the crime committed. Shooting of 10 people is not questioned to be vendetta or not, then why when it comes to revelation of the crime, it turns out to be vendetta issue," the acting Prime Minister stressed.
To recall, on December 7 the Court of Appeal upheld the first instance verdict on the arrest of the second President of the Republic of Armenia, Robert Kocharian. Without waiting for the transfer of the verdict to the investigator, Robert Kocharyan himself appeared in the "Kentron" penitentiary unit, where he was later arrested. The office of the second president of Armenia called the arrest a political vendetta. The RPA, however, qualified this as pre-election pressure from the current government on political opponents. Robert Kocharyan is accused of overthrowing the constitutional order in the March 1, 2008 case. He does not plead guilty in this case.