Friday,
Court Rejects Kocharian’s Immunity Claim
Armenia -- Former President Robert Kocharian.
A court in Yerevan on Friday dismissed former President Robert Kocharian’s
claim that Armenia’s constitution gives him immunity from prosecution on coup
charges strongly denied by him.
An article of the constitution stipulates: “During the term of his or her
powers and thereafter, the President of the Republic may not be prosecuted and
subjected to liability for actions deriving from his or her status.”
Kocharian’s lawyers cited this provision when they asked the district court
last month to free the ex-president and throw out the charges stemming from the
2008 post-election violence in Yerevan.
One of the lawyers, Hovannes Khudoyan, said during a March 26 court hearing
that investigators have still not explained why they believe the clause does
not apply to the high-profile criminal case. Khudoyan argued that Armenia’s
Court of Appeals upheld his client’s immunity from prosecution when it ordered
his release from pre-trial custody in August.
Acting on prosecutors’ appeal, the higher Court of Cassation overturned that
ruling in November, however, ordering the Court of Appeals to examine the case
anew. The latter allowed law-enforcement authorities to press charges against
Kocharian and again arrest him on December 7.
Siding with the prosecutors, the district court ruled that the man who ruled
Armenia from 1998-2008 cannot be protected from prosecution. It did not
immediately publicize its arguments in favor of that ruling.
On Thursday, the Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s March 15 decision to
extend Kocharian’s pre-trial arrested by two months. The ex-president’s lawyers
denounced the decision, saying that it was dictated by the Special
Investigative Service (SIS), a law-enforcement body conducting the long-running
inquiry into the 2008 violence.
Kocharian as well as three retired army generals are accused of overthrowing
the constitutional order in the wake of a disputed presidential election held
in February 2008, less than two months before he completed his second and final
presidential term. The SIS says that they illegally used the armed forces
against opposition supporters who demonstrated against alleged electoral fraud.
Eight protesters and two police servicemen were killed in street clashes that
broke out late on March 1, 2008. Kocharian declared a state of emergency in the
Armenian capital on that night.
All four men deny the charges. Kocharian, who was also charged with bribery
last month, has accused the current authorities and Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian in particular of waging a political “vendetta” against him.
Pashinian, who was one of the main opposition speakers during the
February-March 2008 protests, has dismissed the ex-president’s claims.
Pashinian Ally Denies Blaming Russia For Armenian Parliament Killings
• Susan Badalian
Armenia - Andranik Kocharian, the chairman of the parliamentary committee on
defense and security, speaks to RFE/RL in Yerevan, January 30, 2019.
A senior lawmaker representing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step
alliance strongly denied on Friday media reports which quoted him as accusing
Russia of masterminding the deadly 1999 attack on Armenia’s parliament.
According to some online media outlets, Andranik Kocharian, the current
chairman of a parliament committee on defense and security, alleged recently
that Armenian investigators have established that President Vladimir Putin had
personally ordered Russian security services to organize the attack.
Five gunmen led by a former journalist, Nairi Hunanian, burst into the National
Assembly and sprayed it with bullets on October 27, 1999. Then Prime Minister
Vazgen Sarkisian, parliament speaker Karen Demirchian and six other officials
were killed in the shooting spree that thrust Armenia’s government into turmoil.
The gunmen accused the government of corruption and misrule and demanded regime
change. They surrendered to police after overnight negotiations with then
President Robert Kocharian (no relation to Andranik). They were subsequently
tried and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Andranik Kocharian, who has long been at loggerheads with the former president,
denounced the claims attributed to him as “false” and “nonsensical.”
“State structures could never say such nonsensical things because neither the
parliament attack inquiry is over nor can anyone make such claims based on
materials of the investigation,” he said. “There are simply no grounds for
anyone to make such nonsensical conclusions,” he added.
Kocharian said the media reports were part of an anti-government “provocation”
aimed at undermining Russian-Armenian relations. He expressed confidence that
Moscow did not take them seriously.
Kocharian singled out 7or.am, a news website critical of Pashinian’s government
and sympathetic to the arrested ex-president, as the primary source of the
“disinformation.” He said law-enforcement authorities must launch an
investigation if the website fails to produce evidence of his alleged statement.
The 7or.am editor, Aregnaz Manukian, said that her publication was not the
first to claim that Kocharian pointed the finger at Putin. “We picked up the
story on the Internet, and since there was no reaction to it for a long time,
we decided to publish it,” Manukian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “Andranik
Kocharian should have refuted it earlier.”
Hunanian insisted throughout his marathon trial that he himself had decided to
storm the parliament without anybody's orders. But many in Armenia still
believe that the ringleader and his accomplices had powerful sponsors outside
the parliament building.
Pashinian’s PACE Speech Draws Mixed Opposition Reaction
• Astghik Bedevian
FRANCE -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian attends a debate at the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg,
An Armenian opposition leader on Friday praised Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s latest remarks on Nagorno-Karabakh but disputed his claim that
Armenia has become a full-fledged democracy since last year’s “velvet
revolution.”
“Of course, there were many interesting and good points,” Gevorg Gorgisian of
the Bright Armenia Party (LHK) said, commenting on Pashinian’s speech delivered
in the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) on Thursday. “In
particular, with regard to the Karabakh issue, on human rights in Karabakh and
the conflict’s resolution and peace.”
“But there were also some flaws such as [Pashinian’s claims about] the
establishment of democracy, economic miracle, reforms which have only just
begun, a process where we see numerous shortcomings,” Gorgisian told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service (Azatuyun.am).
“Armenia is today unequivocally a democratic country with absolute freedom of
expression and freedom of assembly,” Pashinian declared on the PACE floor. He
said his government has eliminated “systemic corruption,” broken up economic
monopolies and created “prerequisites for everyone’s equality before the law”
since taking office less than a year ago.
Gorgisian countered that the civil liberties cited by Pashinian are necessary
but not sufficient for a democratic political system which he said also
requires an effective system of checks and balances. He said the prime minister
is reluctant to curb sweeping executive powers inherited from the country’s
former leader, Serzh Sarkisian.
Sergey Bagratian, a senior lawmaker representing the opposition Prosperous
Armenia Party (BHK), also hailed parts of Pashinian’s speech that related to
the Karabakh conflict. In particular, he said, Pashinian was right to make a
case for international recognition of the Karabakh Armenians’ right to
self-determination.
While stressing the importance of his “constructive and positive dialogue” with
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, the Armenian premier called for direct
contacts between the two societies. He rebuked the PACE for having “paid no
attention whatsoever to supporting non-governmental organizations operating in
Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Pashinian also criticized pro-Azerbaijani resolutions on Karabakh adopted by
the PACE in the past. He charged that one of those resolutions “became a
prelude” to offensive military operations launched by Azerbaijan in April 2016.
Press Review
“Zhoghovurd” reports that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said that the Council
of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) is also responsible for the April
2016 war in Nagorno-Karabakh when he gave a speech in the Strasbourg-based body
on Thursday. He referred to a pro-Azerbaijani resolution adopted by the PACE in
January 2016.
“Hraparak” looks at questions which PACE members asked Pashinian after his
speech. Most of them were about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and ongoing
Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations. “Another circle of questions related to
criminal investigations, especially the ones launched against politicians,”
writes the paper. “And when they asked [Pashinian] how Armenia’s government is
fighting against corruption and what results have been achieved Nikol Pashinian
said the key to success is the government’s transparency and told the Europeans
that just ten days ago a criminal case was opened against one of his close
relatives, which shows that he and his entourage will not be corrupt.” Other
questions involved concerns about LGTB rights in Armenia and the fact that
Yerevan continues to vote against anti-Russian resolutions in the United
Nations. “The questions make clear the vector of Europe’s [Armenia-related]
interests,” concludes “Hraparak.”
Lragir.am reports that at his meeting with members of the Armenian community in
Strasbourg held later on Thursday Pashinian was asked about a political scandal
sparked by a transgender activist’s speech in the Armenian parliament. The
person who asked the question was particularly concerned over former Gyumri
Mayor Vartan Ghukasian’s calls for the expulsion of LGBT people from Armenia.
Pashinian responded by recalling a 2007 attempt on Ghukasian’s life. This is
construed by the online publication as the new authorities’ intention to solve
that shooting incident whose masterminds have still not been identified and
punished.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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