Two weeks after he was arrested again, the lawyers for former President Robert Kocharian on Monday asked a district court judge in Yerevan to release him on bail.
The judge presiding over Kocharian’s trial, Davit Grigorian, already ordered him freed from custody pending a verdict in the case on May 18. Grigorian also decided to suspend the trial, saying that a coup charge brought against the ex-president may be unconstitutional. He requested a clarification from Armenia’s Constitutional Court.
The Court of Appeals overturned on June 25 Grigorian’s decisions strongly condemned by political allies and supporters of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. Kocharian reported to a prison in downtown Yerevan a few hours later.
The high-profile trial has still not resumed, however, because Armen Danielian, a Court of Appeals judge, has still not sent materials of the case back to the lower court. The latter will not be able to consider the bail request as long as the trial remains on hold.
Kocharian’s lawyers on Monday again accused Danielian of deliberately dragging out the judicial process to make sure that Kocharian remains under arrest as long as possible. One of them, Hayk Alumian, charged that Danielian is acting on government orders. He insisted that under Armenian law the documents should have been sent back to the district immediately after Danielian’s ruling was made public.
Danielian’s office refused to give reasons for the apparent delay or say when he will enable the court of first instance to resume the trial.
Seda Safarian, a lawyer representing relatives of opposition protesters killed in Yerevan in March 2008, defended Danielian. She suggested that the Court of Appeals judge anticipates that Kocharian will challenge his decision in the Court of Cassation. In that case, he would send the materials directly to the higher court.
Safarian also predicted that the trial of Kocharian as well as his former chief of staff, Armen Gevorgian, and retired Generals Yuri Khachaturov and Seyran Ohanian will not resume before this fall.
The four men stand accused of illegally using Armenian army units against opposition supporters that demanded the rerun of a disputed presidential election held in February 2008. Kocharian ordered troops into Yerevan as opposition protesters clashed with riot police late on March 1, 2008. Eight protesters and two police servicemen died in those clashes.
Earlier this year, Kocharian was also charged with bribe-taking. He denies all accusations leveled against him as politically motivated.