Court twice in one day rejected petition of lawyers of Robert  Kocharyan to recuse judge

ArmInfo.For the second time in 24 hours, the court in Yerevan rejected the petition of the attorneys of the second President of Armenia, Robert Kocharian, to recuse the  judge.

Today, the early side of the defense of Robert Kocharyan filed a  motion to recuse Judge Artur Mkrtchyan for the second time.  Kocharyan's team of lawyers considered that the rationale for  appointing Mkrtchyan a judge in this case was insufficient.

According to the lawyer of former President Hayk Alumyan, the  petition was rejected on the grounds that the chairman of the court  had the right to entrust the consideration of the case to one of the  duty judges.  "For us, this justification is unacceptable, but we  cannot do anything, and are forced to continue consideration  together," said Alumyan. A break was announced at the meeting, it  will continue at 2:30pm.

As Alumian stressed, Kocharyan's defense insists that the discussion  should begin with consideration of the issue of pledge. If the  petition for release of Kocharyan on bail is accepted, the second  issuew related to the petition of the investigator to extend the term  of the arrest of the former president will disappear.

To note today, the defense of the second president of Armenia, Robert  Kocharyan, filed a petition to recuse Judge Artur Mkrtchyan for the  second time. Kocharyan's team of lawyers considered that the  rationale for appointing Mkrtchyan a  judge in this case was  insufficient.  As the lawyer of the former president Aram Orbelyan  told reporters, the court should specify - according to which article  of a specific legislative act it was decided to appoint Artur  Mkrtchyan to be a judge. "The matter is that of the 8 judges on duty  on New Year's holidays, it is not clear by what principle this  particular judge was elected," he explained. As Orbelyan recalled,  according to the Judicial Code, there is a certain procedure for  selecting a judge through the electronic system, which was violated,  and the judge was elected only on the basis of the decision of the  chairman of the court. Such a discretionary decision, according to  the lawyer contradicts to the law. "Our demand-request is that the  case be considered by a court, formed on the basis of the  requirements of the law," he said. However, he said that the defense  is not trying to artificially delay the process. The lawyers hope  that if the judge is recused, the case will immediately be referred  to another judge and the court session will continue throughout the  day.  The prosecutor's office again opposed this recusal. The court  retired to the deliberation room for a decision.

The decision was justified by the fact that lawyer Aram Orbelyan's  connections with the family of the judge were not so close that they  could somehow influence the court decision. It should be noted that  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 preventive measure against Kocharyan - release on bail  - and the extension of 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.