Monday, August 20 2018 13:44

ArmInfo. The Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia today, on August 20 at the Court of Cassation will appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal to release former Armenian  President Robert Kocharyan from the arrest. This was reported to the  correspondent of ArmInfo by Head of the Public Relations Department  of the Prosecutor's Office Arevik Khachatryan.

To recall, on August 13 the  Armenian Court of Appeal granted the   petition of the lawyers of  ex-President Robert Kocharyan and   canceled the decision of  the first instance court. According to his  lawyer Ruben Sahakyan, the   constitutional rule on the inviolability  of the former heads of state   became the basis for changing the  measure of restraint. The Special Investigative Service of Armenia  stated that the decision was illegal, and the Criminal Court of  Appeal went beyond its powers. "We hope that the prosecutor's office  will file a cassation appeal," the SIS said. Already on August 16,  Sasun Khachatryan, head of the SIS, once again spoke to journalists  about the inviolability of the former presidents of the country,  which states that a person - a president can not be prosecuted during  or after his presidential term if his actions were based on his  status.  The status of an official, he explained, represents a stable  set of his rights and duties. "In other words, when we talk about  this, we must understand whether the crimes committed were in his  capacity, and this can not be a part of the status of someone,  therefore, when a crime is committed a person can not enjoy  immunity," he said, stressing that crime is the threshold in which  immunity ceases can not be exercised.

In addition, the head of the SIS insists that the decision of the  Court of Appeal was illegal. First, according to Khachatryan, the  decision was taken by the court "in an illegitimate composition" -  the judge, in view of his involvement, had to declare his recusal and  secondly, the court exceeded its powers, that is, it had to confine  himself to considering the lawfulness of the first-instance court's  decision. "That is, the appellate instance had to give a clear answer  to two questions: is there any reasonable suspicion to keep the  accused under arrest and whether there are grounds for arrest. Thus,  the Court of Appeal should not have addressed the essence of the  charge, it could only do so in the event that there were obvious  contradictions between the prosecution and the composition of the  crime, "Khachatryan explained. Thus, as Sasun Khachatryan stressed,  if the Court of Cassation suddenly decides that Robert Kocharyan is  not subject to criminal prosecution taking into account his  presidential status, which, according to him, is absurd, since a  person can not have absolute immunity in connection with his/her  office, consideration of the matter will go to the next level - to  the Constitutional Court. One of the lawyers of Robert Kocharyan,  Hayk Alumyan in turn said that if the Court of Cassation of Armenia  decides to re-arrest the second president, they will appeal to the  European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).