Kocharyan criminal case 'highly politicized', says former ombudsperson  

10:55 • 12.09.19
Law

The criminal case against the second President Robert Kocharyan is highly politicized, but what's event worse, it bears also a personalized character, a former human rights defender of Armenia said on Wednesday, warning of possible threats to the judiciary's credibility.

‟I think those processes may, at the end of the day, undermine our legal system. In the case of Kocharyan, we have an experienced and exptremely capable qualified team of advocates confronting the prosecutor general. That's to say, everyone is exercising his right to prove the truth from his personal perspective,″ Larisa Alaverdyan, now the executive director of the NGO Against Legal Arbitrariness, told Tert.am.

Asked to comment on the Constitutional Court's recent decision, Alaverdyan recommended against questioning the reputation of the top judicial body (which she said turned out capable enouugh to prove that it does not yield to political pressure).

‟I say it with a great regret that this process against Kocharyan bears a political character. What makes the matters worse, however, is that is it personalized too. While the political character reflects the interests of big groups, personalization is always perceived as a lower-level factor,″ she said, adding that the kind of attitude is expressed also by those who sought to politicize the proceeding (in addition to the prime minister).

 ‟The Constitutional Court's decision is purely legal. It deals with Article 35 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which refers to circumstances excluding criminal prosecution,″ Alaverdyan said, highlighting the constitutionality ruling on Article 135 (establishing bases for the execution of a preventive measure).

″It deals, practically, with Article 135, which was found in line with the [constitutional] requirements, whereas Article 35 appears weak in the sense that our legislation does not stipulate for any functional norm,″ she added.

Mariam Petrosyan

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