ArmInfo. The team of lawyers of the second President of the Republic of Armenia Robert Kocharian filed a lawsuit against Armenia and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
According to the press service of the defense, the claim is based on statements made by Nikol Pashinyan during a rally on March 1 this year on Republic Square in Yerevan.
The defense demands to consider Pashinyan's statements as slander, refute them and recognize the presumption of the president's being not guilty.
The total amount of compensation requested by the defense is AMD 4 million.
Recall that the second President of Armenia Robert Kocharian, former Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan, former CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov and former Defense Minister of Armenia Seyran Ohanyan were accused of overthrowing the constitutional order in the criminal case on the events of March 1, 2008.
However, on April 6, the Court of First Instance, based on the decision of the Constitutional Court to declare article 300.1 of the Criminal Code unconstitutional and invalid, stopped the criminal prosecution against the above-mentioned four former high-ranking officials accused under this article, acquitted them and dismissed the case.
Meanwhile, the court will continue to consider the criminal case under the article "taking a bribe", under which Robert Kocharyan is accused, and under the article "legalization of income obtained illegally on a particularly large scale", under which Gevorgyan is accused. In February 2019, the Special Investigative Service of Armenia charged Kocharyan under paragraph 2 of Part 4 of Article 311 of the Criminal Code of Armenia - receiving a bribe on a particularly large scale.
Earlier, businesswoman Silva Hambartsumyan accused ex-President Kocharyan of taking a bribe in 2008 in the amount of about $3 million.