Some 60,000 signatures collected under petition demanding release of ex-president Kocharyan from custody
About 60 thousand signatures were collected under a petition demanding that Armenia's ex-president Robert Kocharyan, accused of overthrowing the constitutional order, be released from custody pending the outcome of his trial, Aghvan Vardanyan, coordinator of the newly created committee seeking to change the preventive punishment of Kocharyan, told a news conference today.
He recalled that some time ago about 100 political, public and cultural figures issued a statement in defense of Kocharyan, calling on the authorities to abandon their personal interests, accept the wrongfulness of their own prejudices regarding the March 1 criminal case and stop pressure on the judicial system.
Asked whether the citizens who signed the petition were ready to take to streets and voice their demands Vardanyan said this question should be addressed to the citizens themselves.
“I can’t say that all the 60 thousand are ready to take to streets, but thousands are ready. However, this is not the task at the moment,” he said.
The Armenian opposition, led by the first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who ran for the 2008 presidential elections, held rallies in the center of Yerevan for several days, expressing dissatisfaction with the results of the vote that gave the victory to then prime minister Serzh Sargsyan.
On March 1-2, 2008 the protests translated into riots and clashes between protesters and law enforcement forces. Ten people were killed and more than 200 injured.
Armenia’s new government, brought to power by the velvet revolution in 2018 May, revived the investigation into the March 1-2 case. As a result, ex-president Robert Kocharyan, accused of overthrowing the constitutional order, has been arrested.
Also former defense ministers Mikael Harutyunyan is wanted by the law-enforcement authorities as a defendant in the case. He is accused of illegally using the Armenian armed forces against opposition supporters who demonstrated in Yerevan in the wake of the disputed presidential election held in February 2008. The other defendant is another ex-defense minister Seyran Ohanyan. -0-