Kocharyan’s defense team claims judge selected illegally, demands self-withdrawal

The defense team of Armenia’s second president Robert Kocharyan has submitted appeal for self-withdrawal of judge claiming that he has been selected with mediation.

Yesterday the attorneys refused to present the grounding for their petition.

Speaking to reporters after the session, attorney Hayk Alumyan said that few days before the court session they learnt that a draw took place in the Court of Appeal and the judge who was to examine the case was selected. The attorney though claims that no draw is envisaged by the law.

He said they clarified the information from judge Ruben Mkhitaryan who confirmed it.

“After the judge has confirmed it, we petitioned for the judge to show the declaration about the conduction of the draw as each action is to be registered according to the criminal procedure legislation. The judge though left the room saying that there is no such declaration,” Alumyan said, adding that later he submitted some clarifications which instead of making everything clear, left them in more uncertainty.

Alumyan said the judge offered them to clarify everything from the acting chairman of the Court of Appeal which they did, submitting a note and asking to present the criteria of selection of judge.

“In response the acting chairman said a draw was conducted but there is not declaration of it. Besides, the court chairman has presented another reason saying that the judge has been selected accidentally and on the basis of the busy schedule of the judges,” the attorney said, adding that it is already contradicting information.

“If accidental selection was made the busy schedule of judges would not have been considered, if considered, it could not have been accidental selection,” Alumyan said.

Alumyan claimed that there is no law setting such procedure of selection of judges.

Asked whether the prosecutors were against their petition, the attorney said they displayed neutral attitude.

“Strangely enough the investigator too stated that the judge cannot examine this case. My opinion is that they are creating an illusion of being dissatisfied with the judge,” Alumyan said.

As to arresting Kocharyan for the second time, Alumyan said that from the very beginning a number of violations have been registered in the case that is why they do not have positive expectations.

“If this case started with toughest violation of law, we have no expectation that the outcome will be legal,” he said.

The Court of Appeal will publish the decision over the petition submitted by the attorney team of Armenia’s second president Robert Kocharyan today at 5 p.m.