For two and a half years, the lawyers of Armenia’s former President Robert Kocharyan “have repeatedly warned” that Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code has problems with applicability and certainty, one of the lawyers, Aram Orbelyan, told reporters on Tuesday, after a court in Yerevan ruled to end the criminal prosecution against Kocharyan and three other former top officials under the article.
“Still at the stage of preliminary investigation more than 2.5 years ago, we filed a motion to the prosecutor asking for the opinion of the Constitutional Court over Article 300.1,” the lawyer said, stressing the need to reveal how much money the state has spent on conducting criminal proceedings, the illegality of which, according to him, was initially clear to everyone.
“Now they [the prosecutors] have applied to the Constitutional Court. There is no mechanism for altering [the accusations] and there are no grounds for bringing a new charge [against Kocharyan],” the lawyer said.
As for Article 309 of the Criminal Code, Orbelyan said its statute of limitations expired long ago.
“The mania to convict a person at any cost is in itself illegal, inhuman and unconstitutional. We must finally realize the presumption of innocence is one of the most important human rights,” he said, adding that the Prosecutor’s Office should also be guided by the presumption of innocence, which says a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The lawyer also said that no clear decision on the violation of Kocharyan’s rights has yet been made.
“It’s for our client to decide on what processes to start. In my opinion, all persons whose rights have been violated should launch a process to protect their rights. This is the tool which will make the Prosecutor's Office refrain from the desire to convict persons at any cost and begin to fulfill its duties of restoring the rule of law,” Orbelyan said.