International Criminal Court notes a claim against ex-president of Armenia

The International Criminal Court in Hague noted the claim against the
second Armenian president, Robert Kocharyan, press-service of Armenian
oppositional national congress reports.

The congress reported on June 3rd that they filed a suit to the Hague
court against Kocharyan due to the events of 1-2 March 2008, when the
police and supporters of Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who lost the presidential
elections, had fights, leading to 10 people dead. On 1st August 2008
Ter-Petrosyan established the Armenian national congress.

The case will be considered in correspondence with the conditions of the
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Kocharyan headed Armenia in 1998-2008. In February 2008 Armenia had
presidential elections, where Serzh Sargsyan won. The opposition, headed
by Ter-Petrosyan started holding protests on February 20th in the center
of Yerevan. The protests were followed by unrest on 1-2 March, with 10
people killed, 200 wounded and approximately 100 arrested.

In 2008 the opposition started signature collection supporting the suit
to the Hague court. In August 2008 a spokesman of the national congress,
David Shakhnazaryan, said that they received 100 000 signatures
supporting the suit.

The text of the suit consists of 280 pages, 4500 more pages are
documents, including detailed information on over 40 cases, being
investigated at the moment in the European Court of Human Rights in
Strasburg.

Parliamentary deputy of the ruling Republican Party, Armena Shotyan
(Minister of Education and Science), called the suit absurd because the
Hague court does not consider the cases of countries that haven’t joined
the Roman Statute and territories where the Criminal Court is in force.
Armenia signed the Roman Statute but has not ratified it yet, that is
why it cannot address the Hague court.

Ashotyan added that the actions of the opposition can harm the
credibility of Armenia.

Armenian national congress has approximately 20 political parties and
organizations. Its primary demands are release of political prisoners,
restoration of constitutional rights of citizens and holding early
elections.