Lawyer: The Central Election Commission refused to give a substantive assessment of its own decision to consent to the criminal prosecution of Robert Kocharyan.

ArmInfo. The defense of the second President of the Republic of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, would like to receive from the Central Electoral Commission clear justifications for its decision to approve the criminal prosecution of former President and leader of the opposition bloc "Armenia" Robert Kocharyan.

Lawyer Aram Orbelyan stated this to journalists on June 24, explaining the reasons for Robert Kocharyan's filing a lawsuit in the Administrative Court, which held its first hearing on the case today.

As Orbelyan noted, the defense previously presented a number of arguments to the CEC confirming that the criminal prosecution of the second President of the Republic of Armenia is illegal. Moreover, there are well-founded suspicions about the political nature of this case. The chronology of the trial also raises doubts. However, as the lawyer emphasized, the commission refused to provide a substantive assessment of these issues. "We asked the Central Election Commission a very simple question: under what conditions can the CEC reject the prosecutor's petition? After all, if the commission has the right to grant consent, that means it also has the right to reject the petition. This is important for determining the evidentiary standard: it can be low, or it can be high," Orbelyan said, adding that in response to all the defense's objections, the CEC responded that it is not a court and therefore does not provide legal assessments or discuss political issues. At the same time, according to Orbelyan, the final administrative act lacks a justification for the commission's decision.

"Anyone can read this administrative act and see that it does not provide any reasons why consent was granted or why the petition was not rejected." "It was simply recorded that the prosecutor's office filed a petition, and then a decision was made," he noted, also pointing out the presence of procedural problems. According to him, the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the case materials and express their position was not fully ensured, and other participants in the trial, rather than CEC representatives, were effectively forced to explain the grounds for the CEC's decision in court.

The lawyer noted that the court's mission is to verify whether the Central Election Commission properly fulfilled its mandate and adequately justified its decision. "It turns out that the court itself is trying to understand what should be discussed," the lawyer noted.

As a reminder, a new criminal case has been opened against Robert Kocharyan over a deal concluded in 2004 during his presidency. His lawyer called the new criminal episode artificially invented.