The judge, Sargis Petrosian, downplayed that fact, saying that it does not make him biased against the top leader of the main opposition Hayastan alliance.
Kocharian, his former chief of staff Armen Gevorgian and two retired army generals are prosecuted again in connection with a 2008 post-election violence in Yerevan. They were cleared of “overthrow of the constitutional order” by another judge in April 2021 after Armenia’s Constitutional Court ruled that the accusation, rejected by them as politically motivated, is unconstitutional.
Prosecutors appealed against the acquittal, saying that they must be allowed to bring a different accusation also related to the events of March 2008, which left eight protesters and two police personnel dead. The Court of Cassation gave the green light for the new trial in September. Kocharian again decried that “disgraceful” decision when he spoke to journalists after the latest session of the renewed trial.
During the court hearing, the ex-president and his lawyers demanded that Petrosian recuse himself from the case because of his past links to the ruling Civil Contract party which they said call into question his impartiality. The presiding judge rejected the demand.
Petrosian acknowledged that he was a member of the party “for several months” and ran for parliament on its ticket in 2018, a few months before becoming a prosecutor.
“I have never held a political position,” he said. “My inclusion [on a Pashinian-led bloc’s electoral list] was only meant to serve my legal expertise.”
After being acquitted of the coup charge in 2022, Kocharian continued to stand trial on a separate corruption charge. That trial ended without a verdict last December, with the ex-president invoking the statute of limitations that expired in May 2023.
Anna Danibekian, the judge who presided over it, was controversially removed from the bench in July. Armenia’s Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), which was headed until this week by a Pashinian ally, Karen Andreasian, accused Danibekian of letting Kocharian artificially drag out the court hearings.
Andreasian was among six senior state officials who tendered resignation on November 18 three days after Pashinian publicly lambasted Armenian courts and law-enforcement bodies for what he called a continuing lack of “justice” in the country. Pashinian said on November 18 that he “asked” the SJC head to step down because he is unhappy with some of the decisions made by Armenian courts. The premier mentioned unspecified court cases “dragging on for years.”
Opposition leaders and other critics say Andreasian’s effective ouster proved that the SJC, which is supposed to guarantee judicial independence, is in fact controlled by Pashinian.