A first instance court in Yerevan chaired by Judge Anna Danibekyan ruled today to terminate the criminal prosecution of ex-president Robert Kocharyan and three other defendants under Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code. They all were charged with overthrowing the constitutional order.
In March Armenia's Constitutional Court ruled that Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code that was used to prosecute Kocharyan for "overthrowing the constitutional order" runs counter to articles 78 and 79 of the Constitution.
Today's court ruling was made after the consideration of the defendants' lawyers' appeals. Judge Danibekyan said the court decided to reject the defense's petition to remove or reduce the size of the bail paid for Kocharyan to be outside of jail pending the end of the trial, ARKA reported.
Kocharyan, as well as chief of his staff Armen Gevorgyan, former chief of army's staff General Yuri Khachaturov and former minister of defense Seyran Ohanyan have been charged with usurping state power during the March 1, 2008 post-election protests.
