YEREVAN -- Former President Robert Kocharian has been taken into custody by Armenian authorities after being charged in connection with the deadly crackdown on opposition protests following the disputed presidential election in 2008.

A Yerevan district court late on July 27 ruled that the Special Investigative Service (SIS) could hold Kocharian pending investigation into the crackdown that left 10 people dead, including two police officers.

The arrest comes as the government of new Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, a longtime anticorruption campaigner, has stepped up legal action against officials linked to the previous government.

Kocharian has denied charges of “overthrowing Armenia's constitutional order," calling them politically motivated, and his lawyers say he will appeal the pretrial detention ruling.

The lawyers, Ruben Sahakian and Aram Orbelian, declined further comment and said a news conference would be held in Yerevan on July 28.



The case dates back to late February and early March 2008 in the wake of a disputed election to determine Kocharian’s successor.

Kocharian’s ally, Serzh Sarkisian, was declared the winner, angering the opposition and setting off 10 days of nonstop protests that led to a crackdown on March 1 in which 10 people, including two police officers, were killed.

Kocharian is accused of illegally ordering the violent dispersal of protesters.

Kocharian said the postelection crackdown was necessary to prevent an illegal takeover of the government by another former president, Levon Ter-Petrosian.

In March, Nikol Pashinian, then an opposition figure in parliament, asked prosecutors to subpoena Kocharian for questioning over his order to use lethal force to suppress the protests.

Pashinian, who in 2010 was tried and convicted as one of the protest organizers, argued that, in particular, Kocharian should explain where he got information about gunshots allegedly fired at security forces by the demonstrators, which was a key reason cited by authorities in violently putting down the protests.

In a reply to a question from RFE/RL, the Prosecutor-General’s Office in March said Pashinian had no legal standing to demand Kocharian's testimony.

That all changed after Pashinian led a series of massive, nonviolent street protests in the capital, eventually toppling Sarkisian from power and leading to Pashinian’s own election on May 8 to the prime minister’s role in what was hailed by many as a "velvet revolution."

Pashinian, who for years spoke about what he said was widespread government corruption as an opposition member, immediately announced a crackdown on suspected wrongdoing after taking office.



Earlier on July 27, Yuri Khachaturov, the Armenian chief of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), was charged, like Kocharian, with overthrowing Armenia's constitutional order related to the 2008 crackdown.

Khachaturov, who was Armenia's deputy defense minister at the time, denied any wrongdoing in comments to reporters. Officials said he would be released after paying a bail of about $10,000.



The CSTO is a regional grouping that includes Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Critics say Russian President Vladimir Putin sees it as a way to increase Moscow’s influence in former Soviet republics and to counter the European Union and NATO.

Earlier this month, the SIS issued an arrest warrant for retired General Mikael Harutiunian, who served as defense minister during the 2008 unrest. It charged Harutiunian with "illegally" using the armed forces against the protesters, saying that it amounted to an “overthrow of constitutional order.”

On July 9, a spokesman for Kocharian denounced the accusations leveled against the fugitive ex-general as a “mockery of the law.”

Pashinian's administration has also brought cases against several close relatives of Sarkisian’s family for a variety of alleged financial crimes, although Pashinian insisted that no particular family was being targeted.

Pashinian told RFE/RL on July 6 that the cases against Sarkisan family members were being pursued on their legal merits and were not "political" in nature.</s>YEREVAN (Reuters) - An Armenian court ordered former President Robert Kocharyan should be detained on Friday on charges of usurping power, Kocharyan’s lawyer Aram Orbelyan said.

Kocharyan, who served as Armenia’s second president from 1998 to 2008, was in court and taken into custody, the lawyer added.

Investigators have charged Kocharyan with attempting to overthrow the constitutional order after 2008 elections, when his ally Serzh Sarksyan was elected his successor.

Kocharyan has dismissed the charges as politically motivated.</s>YEREVAN (Reuters) - An Armenian court ordered former President Robert Kocharyan detained on Friday on charges of usurping power, his lawyer said.

Kocharyan, who served as Armenia’s second president from 1998 to 2008, was in court and taken into custody, the lawyer, Aram Orbelyan, added.

Kocharyan has dismissed the charges as politically motivated.

Investigators have charged Kocharyan with an attempt to overthrow the constitutional order during events after the 2008 elections when his ally Serzh Sarksyan became the next president.

In February-March 2008 the opposition held protest rallies, contesting the results of the election and saying that their candidate, Levon Ter-Petrosyan had won the vote.

The protests were dispersed and 10 people were killed in clashes with police. The Constitutional Court upheld the election results.

Nikol Pashinyan, an opposition activist at the time who was imprisoned in June 2009 on charges of fomenting unrest during post-election protests, was elected prime minister by parliament on May 8 this year.</s>Armenian investigators on Thursday charged former President Robert Kocharyan with usurping power and filed a court motion to arrest him, the special investigation service said.

The move comes three months after a power change in the ex-Soviet country following weeks of mass protests against corruption and cronyism.

Kocharyan served as Armenia's second president from 1998 to 2008 and investigators have charged him with an attempt to overthrow the constitutional order during post-election events in March 2008, when his ally Serzh Sarksyan was elected the next president.

In February-March 2008 the opposition held protest rallies, contesting the results of the election and claiming that their candidate, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, had won the vote.

The protests were dispersed and 10 people were killed in clashes with police. The Constitutional Court upheld the election results.

Nikol Pashinyan, an opposition activist at the time who was imprisoned in June 2009 on charges of fomenting unrest during post-election protests, was elected prime minister by parliament on May 8 this year.

Kocharyan said the latest charges were politically motivated, but added he was ready to spend time in prison.

"These charges are fiction, fabricated, unjustified and have a political implication," he told an independent Armenian Yerkir Media TV.

Kocharyan also said the most likely development was his arrest, but he did not intend to run away.

"I'm going to go sit in prison and fight to the end."</s>YEREVAN - An Armenian court has granted prosecutors an arrest warrant for former president Robert Kocharyan on charges of "overthrowing constitutional order" by rigging presidential polls over a decade ago in favour of his hand-picked ally.

During a late-night session, a Yerevan court granted a motion by the Armenian special investigation service for the 63-year-old to be held in pre-trial detention, his lawyer Aram Orbelyan told journalists.

Kocharyan has denounced the charges as "false and politically motivated."

"I will go to prison and will fight to the end... I am confident that ultimately I will win because the criminal case is completely falsified," he told Yerkir Media television network earlier.

He could face up to 15 years behind bars if found guilty of tipping a 2008 vote in favour of his political ally Serzh Sarkisian, in what investigators said earlier amounted to a coup.

Supporters of the defeated opposition candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan came out to protest after he denounced the vote as fraudulent.

Tensions then erupted into violent clashes between riot police and Ter-Petrosyan's supporters, in which eight protesters and two officers were killed.

Pashinyan was arrested in 2009 for organising the protests and sentenced to seven years in prison, but was released as part of an amnesty in 2011.

Sarkisian led the South Caucasus nation until April this year, when he was forced to resign because of mass protests against his rule.

Pashinyan - who led the protests - became Sarkisian's successor in May and launched a sweeping, anti-corruption crackdown on former elites.

A pro-Russian politician, Kocharyan served as Armenia's second post-Soviet president from 1998 to 2008.

His presidency saw the bloodiest event in Armenia's post-Soviet political history - the terrorist attack on the Armenian parliament in 1999.

Opposition parties have accused Kocharyan of organising the attack in which five gunmen killed his political foes, Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan and parliament speaker Karen Demirchyan.</s>The second president of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, has appeared in a Yerevan court after having been charged with “usurping state power,” a significant escalation in the new government’s legal campaign against the old regime.

Kocharyan, who has been living in Moscow, landed in Yerevan on the night of July 25 and the next day appeared for questioning at the offices of the Special Investigative Service (SIS). SIS immediately filed charges against Kocharyan and asked the Shengavit District court to detain him.

In a television interview following the three-hour questioning, Kocharyan complained that he had been invited by investigators to testify as a witness, but their first statement was that he was being instead charged with a crime.

“This is political persecution, it’s vendetta by the velvet revolution, of love and harmony… I never thought that in our reality it would be possible to create such an artificial criminal case,” he said, according to news website CivilNet. “What is happening here is a bomb under Armenia’s statehood.”

Kocharyan failed to appear at the hearing that started late that night and it was eventually rescheduled for the following morning.

The charges come out of a broad investigation that the SIS is conducting into the events of March 1, 2008. That is one of the darkest episodes in Armenia’s post-Soviet history, when demonstrators gathered in Yerevan to protest elections that they believed were stolen by Kocharyan, then the president, and his ally Serzh Sargsyan, who had just won the vote. Police and military units broke up the protests violently; two policemen and eight protesters were killed

Not long after, Kocharyan moved out of Armenia and since 2009 has served as a director for Sistema PJSFC, one of Russia’s largest investment companies.

After Nikol Pashinyan led street protests that ousted Sargsyan in April and brought Pashinyan himself to power, the SIS began a broad investigation into the events of March 2008.

Earlier in the month, the SIS revealed charges against former defense minister Mikael Harutyunyan, who also was accused of “usurping state power.” It’s still unclear whether Harutyunyan will turn himself in. A dual Armenian and Russian citizen, he resides in Moscow and the Russian constitution forbids the extradition of its citizens.

“Usurping state power” is a criminal offense under Armenia’s Criminal Code and is punishable by 10 to 15 years of prison.

The SIS explained the charges against Harutyunyan by claiming that he “and other persons” conspired to use the military against protesters by issuing an order to form a unit of military officers tasked with putting down the riots. Although the SIS still hasn’t specified how it believes Kocharyan “usurped” power, the charges may be on the same grounds.

The charges will inevitably raise questions of a conflict of interest.

The SIS reports directly to the prime minister and is headed by a political appointee. And Pashinyan has a close connection to the case: In 2008, he was part of the losing campaign of Levon Ter-Petrossian and helped organize the protests against the vote. After briefly going into hiding, he was convicted to a seven-year jail term for his role in the demonstrations. Pashinyan was released under an amnesty the following year.

In Armenia and on Armenian social media, the reaction was enthusiastic. “We’ve lived to see the day,” wrote RFE/RL reporter Karlen Aslanyan, echoing the mood of the many.

“This isn’t a vendetta,” reacted Armen Ashotyan, a member of parliament in Sargsyan’s Republican Party of Armenia and prominent critic of Pashinyan’s crackdown on the alleged crimes of the former administrations. “This is a legal orgy and political terror.”

The newspaper Armenian Times reported that also questioned on July 26 was Armen Gevorgyan, a deputy prime minister in April and May 2018. Gevorgyan was a chief of staff in both the Kocharyan and Sargsyan administrations, but is believed to be the particularly close to the former. In U.S. Embassy cables released by Wikileaks, he was described as “Kocharyan’s man” and “intensely loyal” to the second president.

Also questioned was Yuriy Khachaturov, who in 2008 was chief of the Yerevan military garrison and today is the secretary-general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russia-led security bloc of which Armenia is a member and Khachaturov its first non-Russian head.

As it happens, the flurry of charges took place as Pashinyan was in Russia, in St. Petersburg at a meeting of the Eurasian Economic Union.

Grigor Atanesian is a freelance journalist who covers Armenia. Reprinted, with permission, from EurasiaNet.</s>Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan has been remanded into custody for two months, his lawyer Aram Orbelyan told reporters today.

Vahe Margaryan, judge of the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction, satisfied the Special Investigative Service’s motion to impose detention as measure of restraint.

Further details will be provided at a press conference on Saturday, the lawyer asaid.

On June 26 Robert Kocharyan was charged with overthrowing constitutional order in prior agreement with other persons, reported the Special Investigative Service.

The decision was made on the basis of sufficient evidence obtained during the investigation into the events of March 1-2, 2008, which saw ten killed in an unrest that followed the presidential elections.

A motion on Robert Kocharyan’s detention was filed with the First Instance Court of General Jurisdiction.

Speaking to Yerkir Media TV, Kocharyan denied the charges, calling them “entirely fictitious, fabricated, and politically motivated.”

“This is an apparent political persecution, a vendetta under the cover of the velvet revolution, under the motto of love and solidarity,” Kocharyan said.</s>Kocharyan was charged on Thursday with overthrowing Armenia's constitutional order by suppressing the 2008 protests.

Meanwhile, Yerevan court released Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov, charged with overthrowing constitutional order in Armenia in 2008, from custody on bail, Khachaturov's lawyer Migran Pogosyan said.

"The court ruled to release Khachaturov on bail," Pogosyan told journalists.

Khachaturov was charged on Thursday with overthrowing Armenia's constitutional order by suppressing the 2008 protests.</s>YEREVAN, Armenia — Robert Kocharian, Armenia’s former president, has been placed in custody for two months while facing charges in connection with deadly clashes between police and demonstrators a decade ago.

Kocharian on Thursday was charged with violating constitutional order and detained Friday. The charges stem from the end of his presidency, when he ordered soldiers and police to break up a March 2008 demonstration protesting the results of the election to choose his successor.

Eight demonstrators and two police officers died in the clash.

Kocharian backers claim the case is politically motivated. In the 2008 election, Kocharian backed Serzh Sargsyan, who served as president for a decade and then became prime minister. Sargsyan in April resigned as prime minister after just six days in office in the face of mass protests.</s>Armenia's former President Robert Kocharian was arrested late Friday on charges of "overthrowing the constitutional order" during events surrounding an election a decade ago.

Kocharian, who served as president from 1998 to 2008, will be held in pre-trial detention, a Yerevan court ruled after the Special Investigative Service (SIS) leveled charges against the 63-year-old a day earlier.

On Thursday, the ex-president said in a television interview that the charges were "completely falsified" and politically motivated.

Investigators accuse Kocharian of rigging the 2008 presidential polls in favor of his ally Serzh Sarkisian.

In February and March 2008, supporters of opposition presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosian protested after they claimed the vote was fraudulent.

Eight protesters and two police officers were killed in the subsequent violence and crackdown. The Constitutional Court validated the election results.

Nikol Pashinian, then an opposition activist in the Ter-Petrosian camp, was imprisoned for seven years in June 2009 for instigating post-election violence. He was released in an amnesty in 2011.

Pashinian led anti-corruption protests in April this year against Sarkisian, forcing him to quit from the newly empowered prime minister post.

Pashinian was then appointed by parliament as prime minister on May 8.

He has since appointed a new figure to lead SIS and launched an anti-corruption campaign against former elites. He also seeks to reform what he claims are broken electoral laws.

The anti-corruption drive has led to criminal charges or investigations into figures in Sarkisian's formerly ruling Republican party, including ex-army generals, customs officers and several other senior officials.

Separately on Friday, former Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Khachaturov was also charged with usurping the constitutional order during the post-2008 election events.

The ex-general, who serves as the secretary general of the post-Soviet Collective Security Treaty Organization military alliance, was released on bail.
Former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan is arrested and taken into police custody on charges of being involved in the crackdown on protests in 2008 that resulted in ten deaths following a disputed presidential election.