Pashinyan on "Freedom to President" initiative: Any political force  has the right to hold peaceful marches and demonstrations

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.