Prosecutor General`s Office sees no reason for Robert Kocharyan`s  release following the decision of the Constitutional Court

ArmInfo. The Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia sees no reason to release the second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan and to close the criminal case brought  against him. This is stated in the response of the Prosecutor  General's Office to the request of the "Armenpress" state news  agency.

The Prosecutor General's Office notes that the decision of the  Constitutional Court of September 4, 2019 SDO-1476 was given comments  that are based on individual observations of its individual  paragraphs and do not follow from the meaning of the decision.

"The former president is not charged with committing such actions  that would be based on his authority.  The accusation does not  concern his immunity, that is, the actions attributed to him cannot  be considered as proceeding from his status", the agency explained,  continuing that from the above it is obvious that the Constitutional  Court, merely stated that there is no special procedure under which  this issue should be the subject of an independent and separate  discussion, and the issue of whether the alleged actions are  connected with the status of the president or not should be solved.  By this the Court has more than clearly defined that the issue of  availability of functional- immunity should be evaluated and resolved  in the framework of the general criminal procedural regulation by an  investigator or prosecutor in pre-trial proceedings and by the court  in court proceedings".

Regarding the recognition by the decision of the Constitutional Court  of Article 35 of the Code of Criminal Procedure as contrary to the  Constitution and invalid, the prosecutor general's office explained  that the functional inviolability envisaged by the article 35 of the  Code of Criminal Procedure is not considered as a circumstance  excluding criminal proceedings.

"Therefore, in all those cases when it turns out that criminal  prosecution is incompatible with the functional inviolability of a  person, the competent authority will objectively be deprived of the  legal opportunity not to initiate criminal prosecution of that person  or to terminate the criminal prosecution already initiated, as well  as to make a lawful decision not to use arrest since there is no  procedural basis for making such a decision.

The indictment brought against Robert Kocharian satisfies the  additional and preliminary mandatory requirement of lawfulness. The  accusation brought against the latter is not connected with his  functional integrity, namely: the acts incriminated to him cannot be  considered as arising from the status of the latter.  Consequently,  the Armenian Prosecutor's Office believes that there is no reason to  stop the criminal prosecution brought against Robert Kocharyan by  force of a decision of the Constitutional Court, " the explanatory  letter of the Armenian prosecutor's office reads.

To note, Kocharyan's defense submitted a motion to the court of  general jurisdiction of Yerevan on Saturday to immediately release  the former head of state from arrest and stop the criminal  prosecution against him.

To recall, on September 4, the Constitutional Court of Armenia  granted the defense claim of Robert Kocharian - Article 35 of the RA  Criminal Code is recognized as unconstitutional, since it does not  provide for the functional inviolability of officials who are  specially protected by the Constitution, including circumstances that  exclude criminal proceedings or criminal prosecution.  "This article  is found to be contrary to clause 4 of part 1 of article 27, part 1  of article 61, part 1 of article 63, articles 75 of the  Constitution", the Constitutional Court said in a decision.  On the  second appeal of Kocharyan's defense on the review of compliance with  the Constitution of Part 2 of Article 135 of the Criminal Procedure  Code of the Republic of Armenia, the Constitutional Court recognized  it as complying with the country's basic law.

Thus, the Constitutional Court ruled that the verdicts adopted, in  accordance with part 2 of Article 179 of the Constitution, are final  and come into force from the moment they are published.  To note,  Robert Kocharyan was arrested on charges of overthrowing the  constitutional order.