Friday,
Kocharian’s Lawyers, Foes Disagree On European Court Opinion
• Naira Bulghadarian
• Astghik Bedevian
France - This inside of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg,
eastern France, on February 7, 2019.
Former President Robert Kocharian’s lawyers and detractors offered on Friday
different interpretations of conclusions drawn by the European Court of Human
Rights (ECHR) regarding the legality of coup charges brought against him.
Kocharian is prosecuted under Article 300.1of Armenia’s Criminal Code dealing
with “overthrow of the constitutional order.” The accusation rejected by him as
politically motivated stems from the 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan that
left ten people dead.
The current code was enacted in 2009. Kocharian’s lawyers maintain that the
article in question cannot be used retroactively against him. They argue that
the previous code, which was in force during the dramatic events of March 2008,
had no clauses relating to “overthrow of the constitutional order” and contained
instead references to “usurpation of state power.”
Prosecutors insist that there are no significant differences between the two
definitions of a crime allegedly committed by the man who ruled Armenia from
1998-2008.
Kocharian’s legal team last year asked Armenia’s Constitutional Court to declare
the coup charge illegal. A Yerevan judge who initially presided over the
ex-president’s trial likewise asked the court to pass judgment on the legality
of the accusation.
The Constitutional Court in turn decided in July 2019 to request an “advisory
opinion” on the matter from the ECHR as well as the Venice Commission of the
Council of Europe. It asked the Strasbourg-based court, among other things, to
conclude whether or not the recourse to Article 300.1 violated the European
Convention on Human Rights
The ECHR’s Grand Chamber released a lengthy and complex opinion on Friday.
Citing the European convention and “case-law,” it concluded that Kocharian
cannot be prosecuted for overthrowing the constitutional order if that entails
“more serious consequences” for the ex-president than “usurpation of state
power” would.
“If the subsequent law is more severe than the law that was in force at the time
of the alleged commission of the offence, it may not be applied,” reads the ECHR
opinion.
The Grand Chamber stressed at the same time that it is up to Armenian courts to
look into “specific circumstances of the case” and “establish whether all
constitutive elements of the offence … were fulfilled under the provisions of
the Criminal Code in the version in force at the time of the impugned events.”
“Should this not be so, the subsequent Article 300.1 of the 2009 [Criminal Code]
cannot be considered as more lenient and, consequently, may not be applied in
the case,” it added.
Armenia -- Former President Robert Kocharian attends hearins at the Court of
Appeals, Yerevan, December 9, 2019.
Kocharian’s lawyers were quick to hail this conclusion. One of them, Aram
Vartevanian, claimed that it essentially reflects what they have said all along.
But Tigran Yegorian, a lawyer representing relatives of anti-Kocharian
protesters killed in the March 2008 clashes with riot police in Yerevan, claimed
the opposite. He argued that the ECHR did not say that Kocharian was indicted in
breach of the European Convention.
“This question has to be answered by the national court dealing with this case,”
Yegorian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
Vladimir Vartanian, the pro-government chairman of the Armenian parliament
committee on legal affairs, also insisted that the ECHR did not side with
Kocharian. “The ECHR said that it does not consider the existence of Article
300.1 a violation of the European Convention in itself,” he said.
The Constitutional Court has yet to receive a similar opinion from the Venice
Commission. Vartanian suggested that it will resume hearings on Kocharian’s and
the district court judge’s appeals only after the commission’s response.
The Constitutional Court announced its decision to appeal to the two European
bodies one day after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian launched a scathing attack
on its chairman, Hrayr Tovmasian. Pashinian accused him of cutting political
deals with former President Serzh Sarkisian to “privatize” the country’s highest
court. Tovmasian rejected the accusations.
Tovmasian and six other judges of the 9-member court have since been under
strong government to pressure to resign. They have refused to quit.
Armenia’s Coronavirus Crisis Worsens
ARMENIA -- A hospital worker (C) wearing a protective face mask and outfit,
speaks with two ambulance doctors wearing yellow protective suits at the Grigor
Lusavorich Medical Center in Yerevan, May 27, 2020
The daily number of coronavirus cases registered in Armenia reached a new record
high on Friday, with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian saying that his country now
has a higher infection rate than neighboring Iran hit hard by the COVID-19
pandemic.
“The situation with the coronavirus epidemic in the country is continuing to
deteriorate,” he said.
Even so, Pashinian made clear that his government is still not planning to
re-impose a nationwide lockdown. He said it will continue instead to promote and
enforce social distancing and hygiene rules set by the health authorities.
The Ministry of Health said in the morning that 460 people tested positive for
coronavirus in the past 24 hours, up from the previous daily high of 452 cases
reported on May 24. It said a total of 1,100 of coronavirus tests were carried
out on Thursday.
The total number of COVID-19 cases registered in the country of about 3 million
thus reached 8,676. The ministry also reported 7 new fatalities which raised the
official death toll from the epidemic to 120.
“I want to stress that in terms of the number of cases per 1 million people we
have already surpassed Iran and France and are practically on a par with
Russia,” Pashinian told a daily news briefing in Yerevan. “At this pace, we will
reach Italy’s indicator.”
“The reason for this situation is widespread non-compliance with anti-epidemic
rules and our citizens’ failure to take epidemiological alarms seriously
enough,” he said, again calling on people to wear face masks, practice social
distancing and disinfect their hands.
Armenians are obliged to wear masks in shops, buses, taxis and all other
enclosed public spaces. They must also possess masks when walking in the streets
or parks.
The Armenian police claim to have fined or reprimanded in recent days hundreds
of people not abiding by this requirement. For their part, sanitary authorities
have ordered one-day closures of many restaurants, shops and other businesses
flouting other safety rules.
ARMENIA - A doctor adjusts a protective face mask at the Grigor Lusavorich
Medical Centre in Yerevan on May 27, 2020.
Critics of the Armenian government are skeptical about the effectiveness of this
strategy of containing the virus. They say that only a renewed lockdown can slow
and ultimately stop the spread of the disease.
Pashinian again spoke out against re-imposing lockdown restrictions now,
however. “I hope that there will be such changes in our social behavior that we
won’t have to revert to a strict lockdown,” he said. “None of us wants such a
scenario.”
“I want to again assure that … if Armenia’s citizens follow the proposed rules
-- namely, wear masks, practice social distancing and periodically disinfect
hands and don’t touch their faces with unwashed hands -- we will very quickly
have a drop in new coronavirus cases and reduce them to zero. We will follow
this path as long as possible,” added the prime minister.
The government had issued stay-at-home orders and shut down most nonessential
businesses in late March. But it began relaxing those restrictions already in
mid-April. The daily numbers of new COVID-19 infections and deaths have
increased significantly since then.
Pashinian dismissed arguments that his government has ignored World Health
Organization warnings against a quick lifting of lockdowns. “The World Health
Organization is guided by health standards, while Armenia, like many other
countries, also has socioeconomic, financial and security needs,” he said. “Many
countries of the world are lifting lockdowns despite not meeting those
standards.”
The crisis is putting a growing strain on Armenia’s underfunded healthcare
system. Faced with the rising number of coronavirus cases, the health
authorities stopped late last week hospitalizing or isolating infected people
who show mild symptoms of the disease or none at all.
Officials have also warned that intensive care units of the Armenian hospitals
treating COVID-19 patients are running out of vacant hospital beds. Arman
Hovakimian, the director of the largest of those hospitals, said on Friday that
95 percent of intensive care beds at the Surp Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center
are already occupied.
Health Minister Arsen Torosian said on Thursday that the authorities will set up
100 more such beds at Surp Grigor Lusavorich and another Yerevan hospital over
the next month.
Torosian also signaled a shortage of medical personnel, urging more Armenian
doctors to join their colleagues fighting against the virus.
“This is especially true for anesthesiologists and resuscitation specialists,”
he wrote on Facebook. “We need them the most because there are now more than 350
patients in a severe or critical condition and in need of their care.”
New Karabakh Leader Gives Key Posts To Rivals
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Nagorno-Karabakh -- President Ara Harutiunian and Samvel Babayan sign a
memorandum of cooperation, Stepanakert, May 25, 2020.
In what amounted to a power-sharing deal, Nagorno-Karabakh’s new President Ara
Harutiunian on Friday appointed two rival political figures, who challenged him
in the recent presidential and parliamentary elections, to key positions in his
administration.
Harutiunian said Masis Mayilian, who finished second in the presidential
election, will continue to serve as Karabakh’s foreign minister while Samvel
Babayan, the Armenian-populated territory’s former military leader, will take
over as secretary of his security council.
Mayilian won more than 26 percent of the vote in the first round of voting held
on March 31 amid serious concerns about the spread of coronavirus in Karabakh.
Citing those concerns, he did not campaign for the run-off ballot held on April
14 and urged supporters to boycott it. As a result, Harutiunian cruised to a
landslide victory in the race.
“We did not engage in political horse-trading,” Harutiunian said when he
announced Mayilian’s appointment. He said they simply agreed to jointly shoulder
“responsibility for our country’s future” in view of serious “challenges and
dangers” facing it.
Nagorno-Karabakh -- President Ara Harutiunian airs a video address, Stepanakert,
.
Harutiunian offered a similar explanation for his deal with Babayan which
appears to be even more significant. In a live Facebook broadcast, he argued
that the latter’s United Homeland bloc won the second largest number of seats in
the Karabakh parliament also elected on March 31.
Harutiunian’s Free Homeland bloc won 16 seats in the 33-member legislature,
falling just short of a parliamentary majority. With Babayan’s bloc holding 9
seats, the power-sharing deal should allow the new president to push through key
bills.
The two men signed a “memorandum of cooperation” between their political forces
in Stepanakert on Monday. “For our team the most important thing will be the
implementation of our program so that there is public trust and we improve the
socioeconomic situation and manage to achieve development in all spheres,”
Babayan said at the signing ceremony.
According to Harutiunian, they made a “final decision” on Babayan’s appointment
at a meeting held in Yerevan on Thursday. The 46-year-old Karabakh leader also
met with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on the same day.
Babayan, 55, has held no government posts in Stepanakert for the last two
decades. The once powerful general was the commander of Karabakh’s
Armenian-backed army during and after the 1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan. He was
widely regarded as the region’s most powerful man at that time.
Babayan was arrested in 2000 and subsequently sentenced to 14 years in prison
for allegedly masterminding a botched attempt on the life of the then Karabakh
president, Arkadi Ghukasian. He was set free in 2004.
Babayan lived in Russia for five years before returning to Armenia in 2016. He
was arrested in Yerevan in 2017 on charges of illegal arms acquisition and money
laundering which he strongly denied. The arrest came two weeks before Armenian
parliamentary elections. Babayan unofficially coordinated the election campaign
of an opposition alliance challenging then Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian.
Armenia - Samvel Babayan is greeted by supporters in Yerevan after being
released from prison, 15 June 2018.
A Yerevan court sentenced the Karabakh general to six years in prison in
November 2017. Armenia’s Court of Cassation overturned the verdict in June 2018
two months after the “Velvet Revolution” that toppled Sarkisian and brought
Pashinian to power.
After his release from jail, the former strongman hoped to run in the 2020
presidential election but was deemed ineligible because of not having lived in
Karabakh for the past 10 years. He reportedly threatened to stage street
protests last year after the authorities in Stepanakert refused to abolish this
legal requirement for presidential candidates.
Babayan, who is known for favoring a hard line on the conflict with Azerbaijan,
eventually agreed to participate only in the legislative elections. He
unofficially supported Mayilian in the presidential race.
Azerbaijan has strongly condemned the Karabakh polls, saying that they run
counter to Azerbaijani and international law. It says that that Karabakh, which
had broken away from Azerbaijani rule in 1991, is governed by an “illegal regime
installed by Armenia.”
By contrast, Armenia has defended the holding of the polls. It has cited a 1992
OSCE document saying that “elected representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh” should
also participate in Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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