Keeping Kocharyan's passport while not applying any preventive measure is illegal – attorneys

Keeping passport of a suspect while there is no preventive measure against him is illegal, member of attorney group for Armenia’s second president Robert Kocharyan said at a news conference today.

“As far as there is no preventive measure against a suspect his passport cannot be kept in the investigative body,” attorney Hovhannes Khudoyan said.

“It is illegal and we are going to discuss issues on bringing some officials to criminal responsibility,” he stressed.

The Court of Appeal has changed the arrest as Kocharyan’s preventive measure but has not applied any other. After the talks about Kocharyan’s departure, the investigative body decided to apply signature bond on not leaving the country as a preventive measure.

The former president is charged with breaching the constitutional order during the public protests in March 2008. He was kept in custody for 17 days until Court of Appeal satisfied the appeal of his attorneys and he was set free.