2024-07-24 06:01:05
The criminal case against former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and others may be reopened. This opinion was expressed by Kocharyan’s lawyer Hayk Alumyan in an interview with Armenian media, Day.Az reports.
On March 26, the Constitutional Court of Armenia declared Article 300.1 “Overthrow of the constitutional order”, under which Robert Kocharyan and a number of former officials were charged, to be unconstitutional and invalid. Following this, the Yerevan court dropped the criminal prosecution of Kocharyan, former Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan, former Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan and former Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces Yuri Khachaturov under this article.
Alumyan noted that the Cassation Court applied to the Constitutional Court to reclassify the case. On July 22, the Constitutional Court ruled that Part 3 of Article 309.1 of the 1998 Code of Criminal Procedure of Armenia complies with the Constitution. This means that the charges against the defendant may be changed or supplemented if new evidence emerges during the trial indicating the commission of another crime. It is important that the change in charges occurs before the court retires to the deliberation room to pass the verdict. Thus, the court may review the original charges and bring new ones that correspond to the newly discovered circumstances.
The Cassation Court also addressed the Constitutional Court with a request regarding other articles – 1, 4 and 5 parts of Article 35, 2 parts of Article 366. It was under these articles that the Constitutional Court terminated the proceedings in Kocharyan’s case. At the same time, Judge Seda Safaryan was prohibited from participating in the consideration of the case, since she had previously participated in the consideration of the same case in another court.
Subscribe to our WhatsApp channel and stay up to date with the latest news!