ArmInfo.The Criminal Court of Appeal in Yerevan, chaired by Judge Narine Hovakimyan, has postponed hearings on complaints from lawyers and prosecutors about the termination of the case on the alleged overthrow of the constitutional order for a month.
Seyran Ohanyan's lawyer Karen Mezhlumyan said that he will be on vacation from September 18 to 28. In addition, judges must participate in refresher courses and will be able attend court sessions after October 11. In this regard, the next hearing was scheduled for 5:00pm on 15 October.
To recall, earlier the Constitutional Court recognized Article 300.1 (overthrow of the constitutional order), according to which charges were brought against Robert Kocharian, as well as former Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan, former Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan and former Secretary General of CSTO Yuri Khachaturov, as not corresponding to the Constitution. On this part, the charges were dropped, the criminal prosecution was dropped.
The court also ruled to leave the bail unchanged as a measure of restraint against the former president of the republic, since he and former Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan are accused of taking bribes on an especially large scale. In June 2020, by a court decision, Robert Kocharian was released on bail in the amount of 2 billion drams. The General Prosecutor's Office of Armenia stated that in the Constitutional Court it will challenge several articles of the Criminal Code (CC) of the republic, according to which the prosecutor's office must drop charges against the ex-head of state in connection with the decision of the Constitutional Court to recognize Article 300.1 as unconstitutional.
On August 30, the lawyers petitioned for a reduction in the amount of the bail. Lawyer Hovhannes Khudoyan noted that by the decision of the court of general jurisdiction of Yerevan on the termination of criminal prosecution on the basis of Article 300.1, most of the reasons for the establishment of the specified preventive measure were eliminated. Defender Hayk Alumyan, in turn, stated that after the termination of the criminal prosecution under Article 300.1, a new situation has developed - those suspicions on which the measure of restraint and the amount of bail were previously chosen are significantly reduced.