Paying servicemen from private means is not a crime: Kocharyan’s defense team

The defense team of Armenia’s second president Robert Kocharyan is mainly satisfied with the four-day judicial process, defense team representative, lawyer Aram Orbelyan told the reporters today.

He said though that at the end the representatives of the prosecution voiced few statements but the judge did not give them an opportunity to refer to them what now they are trying to do via press conference.

Orbelyan assessed the statements voiced in the address of the judge by Attorney General Artur Davtyan as a threat.

“To tell the court that the whole responsibility lays on you, you are responsible for the case, is not lawful. It puts additional tension on court in the conditions of already tensed atmosphere,” other lawyer, defense team member Hovhannes Khudoyan said.

Referring to the accusations voiced by the prosecutors, Orbelyan said that Robert Kocharyan considered the police operation in the Liberty Square to be just a search of the territory.

“Mr Kocharyan did not know about the clashes that would take place there that the rally would be dispersed,” he said.

As to the statements of the accusing side that 113 million non-budget means were allocated to pay servicemen, Orbelyan said, “When Sasun Khachatryan stated about it he was presenting Defense Ministry’s record. If you want to hide anything you do not form an official document and archive it,” he said, adding that later they will discus and understand what relations the sums have with Mr Kocharyan.

Lawyer Hovhannes Khudoyan added that the sums have not been distributed for something.

“They were distributed in future to the servicemen who were implementing their service during the emergency situation. It is being presented as a very negative phenomenon. May paying servicemen from private means be considered a crime? If not, let us not speculate this circumstance,” Khudoyan said.