Kocharyan sues Pashinyan

Former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan filed a lawsuit against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on April 7, Report informs, referring to Sputnik Armenia.

The reason for the lawsuit was the statements of the prime minister during the rally on March 1, 2021. The ex-president’s lawyers suggest that Pashinyan spoke about Robert Kocharyan’s case, without mentioning his name.

“We demand recognition of the presumption of innocence and refutation of slander. Considering that two different violations were committed simultaneously, we demand 2 million drams for each, a total of 4 million drams (about $4,000),” the human rights activists said.

On March 26, the Constitutional Court of Armenia recognized the article on “overthrowing the constitutional order,” according to which the second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan is being sued, as invalid and contrary to two articles of the constitution of the republic. The lawyers of the former Armenian leader said that the decision of the Constitutional Court provides for the termination of criminal prosecution under this article.

One of the accusers, Gevorg Baghdasaryan, later stated that the act imputed to Kocharyan could be re-qualified from “overthrowing the constitutional order” to “exceeding official powers, which inadvertently entailed grave consequences.”