Armenia’s second president’s defense team preparing to file third complaint to ECHR

Yerevan court of general jurisdiction continues examination of petition on prolonging the arrest of Armenia’s second president Robert Kocharyan chaired by judge Artur Mkrtchyan.

Kocharyan’s defense team has filed a petition on changing his preventive measure, while the investigator filed a petition on prolonging the arrest for another two months.

Kocharyan’s attorney Aram Orbelyan said they are preparing to submit third complaint to the European Court of Human Rights. “We will more probably include the Article 18 which defines who is political prisoner,” he said.

Orbelyan noted that the Armenian courts do not discuss the issue of Kocharyan being a political prisoner.

“Here we show the legal violations as well. Appeal to the ECHR will not be agreed with the outcome of today’s court hearing, which of course is very important, but we will consider how the examination passes,” Kocharyan’s attorney said.