ArmInfo. The Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia today, on August 20 at the Court of Cassation will appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal to release former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan from the arrest. This was reported to the correspondent of ArmInfo by Head of the Public Relations Department of the Prosecutor's Office Arevik Khachatryan.
To recall, on August 13 the Armenian Court of Appeal granted the petition of the lawyers of ex-President Robert Kocharyan and canceled the decision of the first instance court. According to his lawyer Ruben Sahakyan, the constitutional rule on the inviolability of the former heads of state became the basis for changing the measure of restraint. The Special Investigative Service of Armenia stated that the decision was illegal, and the Criminal Court of Appeal went beyond its powers. "We hope that the prosecutor's office will file a cassation appeal," the SIS said. Already on August 16, Sasun Khachatryan, head of the SIS, once again spoke to journalists about the inviolability of the former presidents of the country, which states that a person - a president can not be prosecuted during or after his presidential term if his actions were based on his status. The status of an official, he explained, represents a stable set of his rights and duties. "In other words, when we talk about this, we must understand whether the crimes committed were in his capacity, and this can not be a part of the status of someone, therefore, when a crime is committed a person can not enjoy immunity," he said, stressing that crime is the threshold in which immunity ceases can not be exercised.
In addition, the head of the SIS insists that the decision of the Court of Appeal was illegal. First, according to Khachatryan, the decision was taken by the court "in an illegitimate composition" - the judge, in view of his involvement, had to declare his recusal and secondly, the court exceeded its powers, that is, it had to confine himself to considering the lawfulness of the first-instance court's decision. "That is, the appellate instance had to give a clear answer to two questions: is there any reasonable suspicion to keep the accused under arrest and whether there are grounds for arrest. Thus, the Court of Appeal should not have addressed the essence of the charge, it could only do so in the event that there were obvious contradictions between the prosecution and the composition of the crime, "Khachatryan explained. Thus, as Sasun Khachatryan stressed, if the Court of Cassation suddenly decides that Robert Kocharyan is not subject to criminal prosecution taking into account his presidential status, which, according to him, is absurd, since a person can not have absolute immunity in connection with his/her office, consideration of the matter will go to the next level - to the Constitutional Court. One of the lawyers of Robert Kocharyan, Hayk Alumyan in turn said that if the Court of Cassation of Armenia decides to re-arrest the second president, they will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).