Court will announce decision on Investigation`s petition to arrest Robert Kocharyan at midnight

ArmInfo. The court will announce the decision on the petition of the Special Investigation Service (SIS) on choosing arrest as a preventive measure against the second president of Armenia Robert Kocharian at 11:30pm. According to the prosecutor Ara Mnatsakanyan, consideration of the petition has been completed. "The court went to the meeting room and the decision will be announced at 11:30pm," he said. Meanwhile, the hearing on the case of the second Armenian President Robert Kocharyan resumed today at 11:00am. Yesterday the trial, held in the court of first instance of the Shengavit district of Yerevan, was postponed due to the fact that, according to the lawyers of the accused, Robert Kocharyan was not properly notified.

On July 26, Robert Kocharyan appeared for questioning in the SIS, where his status was changed from witness into a "accused". The SIS accused Kocharyan of overthrowing the constitutional order within the criminal case on dispersal of protest actions on March 1, 2008. A petition for his arrest was sent to the court.  According to the Armenian Constitution, during and after the end of his term, the president can not be persecuted and held accountable for actions conditioned by his status.

Former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, after being questioned in the SIS, in an interview to "Yerkir Media" TV channel stated that a real bomb was placed under the statehood, reffering to the attempt to reconsider the decision of the Constitutional Court. "The accusation is fabricated, with political overtones and has nothing to do with reality: this is a political persecution, vendetta, legal surrealism," Kocharyan said. According to him, when making such an accusation, the investigation, therefore, does not recognize the decision of the constitutional court, the results of the 2008 presidential elections. In his opinion, attempts are being made to reshape the history in favor of political conjuncture. They are trying to transfer "the moods of broad sections of the population " into the legal field, and it turns out that Levon Ter- Petrosyan, who gained 21.5%, won in the 2008 presidential elections," Kocharyan noted. According to the former president, this may relate to the desire to neutralize his participation in political processes on the eve of the early parliamentary elections. As Kocharyan pointed out, he does not intend to avoid responsibility, "he is ready to serve the time in jail and go to the end", since his whole biography is connected with Armenia.

To recall, as a result of the presidential elections on February 19, 2008, the Armenian opposition led by the first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan lost to Serzh Sargsyan. The official results of the vote raised dissatisfaction of the supporters of the opposition candidate. On March 1-2, as a result of a clash between protesters and law enforcers, 10 people were killed and 200 were injured.  The incumbent Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was a member of Ter-Petrosyan's campaign headquarters in 2008 and one of the active participants in the protest actions. He was put on the wanted list and in the summer of 2009 surrendered to the authorities. On January 19, 2010  the court of administrative districts of Kentron and Nork-Marash communities of Yerevan sentenced Pashinyan to seven years in prison for organizing riots with a group of persons. However, in May 2011 he was released on amnesty.