Wednesday, December 18 2019 16:03

ArmInfo.The goal of the Committee on the release of Second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan is to change the measure of restraint for Kocharyan by  reformatting the legal issue into a socio-political demand. This was  announced at a press conference by the coordinator of the Committee,  a former MP from the ARF party, Aghvan Vardanyan.

Vardanyan noted that about two months ago, about a hundred  representatives of public, political, cultural, sports circles  circulated a petition demanding the release of the second president  from custody. To date, about 60 thousand citizens of Armenia and  Artsakh have signed a petition.

As noted by Vardanyan, the authors of the document calls on the  country's authorities to be stronger than personal ambitions and stop  pressure on judges.

At the same time, he specified that he could not say whether 60  thousand people will line the streets of the country, but suggested  that at least several thousand people were ready to take to the  street protests, while emphasizing that this issue was not discussed  in the group's agenda.

Speaking about the activities of the initiated group, Vardanyan said  that in the near future a number of meetings are planned with  representatives of the judiciary, the Supreme Judicial Council, the  Ombudsman of Armenia, ambassadors of foreign countries,  representatives of international and local human rights structures.

"It's absurd that in today's reality, Robert Kocharyan is under  arrest and this is done as a result of pressure on judges, but his  arrest does not bring any benefit to the authorities, the state or  citizens," he said, expressing the opinion that one of the reasons  for the tension and the split of the society is the unlawful arrest  of Kocharyan and the development of events in the March 1 case.

Vardanyan, in convinced that Robert Kocharyan was appointed guilty of  the tragic events of March 1, 2008, however, the accusation presented  to Kocharyan has nothing to do with disclosing the circumstances of  the deaths of 10 people.

The politician called the approach of the current authorities  unpromising, and announced that the initiated public group would, by  any legal means, seek to change the preventive measure against  Kocharyan.

To recall, the second president of Armenia is accused of overthrowing  the constitutional order in the framework of the criminal case on the  dispersal of protests on March 1, 2008. The former president of  Armenia was arrested twice in 2018. And on June 25 of this year he  was arrested for the third time. The court of general jurisdiction of  Yerevan, at a meeting on November 7, decided to leave Kocharian under  arrest, rejecting the defense's request for the use of bail as an  alternative preventive measure.