Protesters in Yerevan tore off the Kocharian press conference, demanding to return the "killer" in jail

The decision of the Court of Appeal of Armenia on the release of the former president of the country Robert Kocharyan, accused of overthrowing the constitutional system, caused protests in Yerevan. On the morning of August 14, citizens who disagree with such a turn of events gathered for a rally in front of the Erebuni Plaza business center building in the center of the Armenian capital, where Kocharyan’s press conference was supposed to begin at noon. Then, several dozens of protesters broke into the hall on the 9th floor of the building in order to disrupt the communication of the ex-president with the press and eventually achieved their goal, reports Sputnik Armenia .

Despite the fact that police officers closed the door to the hall, some of the protesters managed to break inside, and the rest began to pound the door, demanding that they let them in. Later, they were able to break into the hall with the shouts of the "killer". Several people got up to the table where Kocharyan was supposed to sit, and began to scream the Robert Ubitz, the agency reports.

Kocharian himself at that moment had not yet appeared in the hall. According to activists, Kocharian should not be able to freely give press conferences. After some time, the protesters announced that the press conference had fallen and left the hall.

After that, the participants in the action by the procession went to the building of the Prosecutor General of Armenia, where other opponents of the liberation of Kocharyan gathered. Protesters began to chant the "killer", "Kocharian must be arrested." Among the audience there are relatives and friends of the dead during the riots on March 1, 2008, Sputnik Armenia reports.

The head of the department for supervision of particularly important cases, Vaagn Muradyan, came to the protesters and said that the agency intends to appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal to change the preventive measure to Kocharian. “After a couple of days, we will receive this decision, discuss it and submit our appeal - in accordance with the content of the decision,” Armenpress quotes him.

The day before, the Court of Appeal of Armenia canceled the decision of the Yerevan court of first instance on the conclusion of the ex-president to custody and released him in the meeting room due to the fact that Kocharian as a former head of state (1998-2008) has immunity.

The press service of the special investigative service of Armenia called the decision of the court of appeal illegal and expressed hope that the Prosecutor General of the country will appeal this decision in the cassation court.

On July 28, the court in Yerevan granted the petition of the special investigative service of Armenia to arrest the former president of the country for two months, which was charged with the overthrow of the constitutional system in 2008 for two days.

The Kocharian case

We are talking about events on March 1-2, 2008, when, after the presidential election, supporters of the first chapter of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan refused to recognize the data of the Central Election Commission of the victory of Serge Sargsyan and took to the streets of Yerevan.

Early in the morning of March 1, police attacked opposition demonstrators who spent the night in Yerevan Square in Yerevan. Later on the same day, in the square near the monument to Alexander Myasnikyan and in its environs between the protesters and the security forces, clashes occurred, as a result of which 10 people died, including two police officers, and more than 250 were injured, including 33 law enforcement officers. 10 years after these bloody events, the circumstances of the death of people still remain unclear.

In the spring of 2018, an “velvet” revolution took place in Armenia, which ended with the victory of opposition Nikola Pashinyan and his supporters. In 2008, Pashinyan was a member of the presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan.

After the riots on March 1, 2008, Pashinyan was put on the wanted list and surrendered to the authorities in 2009. In January 2010, he was sentenced to seven years on charges of organizing riots. In May 2011, Pashinyan was released in amnesty.

Having taken the post of Prime Minister of the country instead of Serge Sargsyan, Pashinyan ordered a thorough investigation of 10 years ago. As a result, in Armenia they began to detain and put on the wanted list one after another of large politicians and their relatives. After the election, Prime Minister Pashinyan announced the inevitability of disclosing the “March 1”.

Kocharian considers accusations fabricated political persecution. According to the ex-president, they want to remove him from participating in political processes in Armenia on the eve of extraordinary parliamentary elections, RIA Novosti reports.

In the framework of this case, the prosecution was also brought by the former Minister of Defense of Armenia Mikael Harutyunyan and the Secretary General of the CSTO Yuri Khachaturov, who served in 2008 in the Armenian Armed Forces. Khachaturov was released on bail.