SIS responds to Kocharyan`s lawyers` accusations

ArmInfo. The Special Investigative Service of Armenia reacted to the accusations of the lawyers of the second president Robert Kocharyan about the unlawfulness of the confiscation of his passports by the SIS.

In its statement, the SIS considered unprofessional the arguments of Kocharyan's defense about the unconstitutionality of the confiscation of his passports by the Service ". On April 4, 2017 the Constitutional Court of Armenia considering the constitutionality of the law on the" Passport of an Armenian citizen " did not find the norm of confiscation of passport of accused by investigative body unconstitutional.  Consequently, it is not clear how Kocharyan's lawyers can claim that the Constitutional Court considered this rule unconstitutional, and referring to this, accuse the SIS of violating the law in the matter of confiscating the passports of the accused who is charged with overthrowing Constitutional order. There are several conclusions from this: either Kocharyan's defense is not familiar with the Constitutional Court's decision, or it acts unprofessionally, or deliberately misleads society ", the statement of the SIS reads.

To note, Kocharyan's defense stated yesterday that the seizure of the passports of the second RA President by the SIS is illegal, since earlier the Constitutional Court decided on the unconstitutionality of the relevant law on the "Passport of a citizen of the RA".

To recall, Kocharyan intended to leave the republic for several days with the purpose of passing medical examination, but for lack of a passport he could not do it. Subsequently, the SIS applied a measure of restraint against Kocharyan in the form of a written undertaking not to leave the place.