ArmInfo.The third appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case of the second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan, in addition to the earlier violations of the norms of fair trial and a fair investigation against the former president, may include elements of political persecution.
This was stated by Kocharyan's lawyer Aram Orbelyan in an interview with journalists. Meanwhile, today's court of first instance will first of all consider the investigation's request to extend the term of Kocharyan's arrest for 2 months.
According to Orbelyan, at this stage, the defense of the retired president is preparing the third complaint to the ECHR specifically with reference to the provisions on violation of Kocharyan's rights for political reasons. "Mr. Kocharyan falls under the notion of a political prisoner," he said.
At the same time, Aram Orbelyan refused to make predictions as to whether the court would satisfy the Special Investigation Service's request to extend the term of the ex-president's arrest. In the case of a positive decision on the SIS petition, there is no need to consider the appeal of Kocharyan's defense to stop criminal prosecution.
Earlier, Robert Kocharyan's stated that today there are 2 complaints to the ECHR. One of them concerns the arrest by the Court of Appeal of Robert Kocharyan, and the second complaint, filed back in October, concerns a violation of the right to Kocharyan's defense, as well as a violation of the presumption of innocence. To note, the court of first instance in Yerevan is to simultaneously consider two petitions filed by the defense and the prosecution: on the use of an alternative measure of restraint against Kocharyan - release on bail - and extending his arrest for two months. Earlier, the Special Investigation Service (SIS) sent a petition to the court of general jurisdiction of Yerevan to extend the term of arrest of the second president Robert Kocharyan for two months. At the same time, Kocharyan's defense submitted a petition to the Special Investigation Service to stop the prosecution. Lawyers believe that Kocharyan cannot be accused under the article "overthrow of the constitutional system" in the case of the events of 2008, because at that time there was no crime in the Armenian Criminal Code in this article or in the crime it provided.