Yuri Khachaturov and Seyran Ohanyan Granted Exonerated Status

The Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction today granted the request of the defense team in the "March 1" case to terminate the criminal prosecution against Armenia's second President Robert Kocharyan, former Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan, former Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan, and former Chief of Staff and Secretary General of the CSTO Yuri Khachaturov under article 300.1 of the criminal code, which was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court.

Thus, Seyran Ohanyan and Yuri Khachaturov have been completely released from criminal prosecution, as they were only accused under article 300.1 of the Criminal Code. The court decided to lift the restrictions placed on them and to remove the property seizures.

As for the defendants in the "March 1" case, Robert Kocharyan and Armen Gevorgyan, their prosecutions were also terminated only with respect to the aforementioned article. It should be noted that apart from this article, former President Kocharyan is also charged with accepting a bribe in a particularly large amount under part 4 of article 311, while former Deputy Prime Minister Gevorgyan is charged with money laundering under part 3, clause 1 of article 190, in addition to the two articles mentioned.

The court denied the requests to lift the restrictive measures applied to Kocharyan and Gevorgyan and also rejected a request to reduce the bail imposed on Kocharyan. Interestingly, the court also denied a motion from the defense that sought to obligate the prosecutor's office to issue a formal apology to Robert Kocharyan, Armen Gevorgyan, Yuri Khachaturov, and Seyran Ohanyan for conducting illegal prosecutions against them.