Court in Robert Kocharyan Case Moves to Deliberation Room

During the February 3 session of the Court of Appeal, Prosecutor Petros Petrosyan filed an appeal against the decision made by the First-instance Court. He outlined the legal justifications and requested the court to overturn the First-instance ruling and send the case for retrial. The main part of Petrosyan's appeal concerns judicial oversight. According to him, the First-instance Court made errors in its decision that affected the case.

“The court has exceeded the boundaries of pre-trial oversight; it could not determine which parts of the pre-trial materials are classified,” the prosecutor stated.

It should be noted that the First-instance Court had ruled on November 25 that Robert Kocharyan's rights were violated. The court also noted that public interest predominates in the issue of providing pre-trial materials to the defense, thus they are subject to provision and publication.

Prosecutor Petrosyan mentioned that the materials to be provided do not contain data that Kocharyan's defense could use during the trial. H. Khudoyan also pointed out that the legislation grants the defense the right to receive them. Moreover, he reminded that the investigator had previously stated that materials proving the guilt of the defendants had been given to the defenses. However, some preliminary investigation data had leaked to the press.

H. Khudoyan recalled that a criminal case had been initiated regarding the events of March 1, 2008, and an intensive investigation had begun in the Special Investigative Service of Armenia, which continues to this day.

Judge A. Danielyan, after hearing the arguments from both sides, announced that the court was moving to the deliberation room to make a decision regarding Petrosyan's appeal. The decision will be published on February 6 at 10:30 AM.