Kocharyan's Defense Team Issues Statement

The Constitutional Court's decision on January 25 rejected the examination of the constitutionality of Article 414.2, part 1, point 1 of the Criminal Procedure Code based on Robert Kocharyan's application.

In this regard, Robert Kocharyan's legal team has released a statement, which states:

“The main subject of the constitutional dispute was the legislative provisions outlined in Article 414.2, part 1, point 1 of the RA Criminal Procedure Code, which do not clarify that the authority of the Court of Cassation does not pertain to the uniform application of the norms of the RA Constitution, as this matter is regulated by the Constitutional Court.”

“On January 25, the Constitutional Court addressed the application submitted by the legal team as a routine decision.

The extensive decision accepted by the Constitutional Court emphasized that the authority to provide a final resolution to issues of constitutional interpretation is solely reserved for the Constitutional Court. A similar claim had been presented in the application itself. The court also highlighted that all courts, not just the Court of Cassation, must incidentally verify the constitutionality of the normative legal act applied and are obligated to refer to the Constitutional Court if there are grounds for it.”

“Since the Constitutional Court specifically pointed out that the final resolution regarding the interpretation of constitutional norms is reserved for them and the approaches to the distribution of these functions had not been recorded with such clarity, although a number of requirements for the admissibility of the application were met, the court rejected the acceptance of the proceedings.”

“It should be noted that the Constitutional Court has repeatedly referenced its own adopted procedural decisions, and such an extensive procedural decision may be beneficial in the overall process of referring to the Constitutional Court. In this case, the basis for rejection can practically be overcome.”

It should be reminded that Robert Kocharyan's legal team submitted three applications to the RA Constitutional Court.