According to eyewitness accounts, masked officers of the National Security Service (NSS) pulled Aleksandr Kochubayev out of his car, threw him onto the ground and then drove him away on Thursday shortly after the latest court hearing in the ongoing trial of Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian and his 17 supporters. Kochubayev represents one of the defendants facing coup charges denied by them.
Earlier in the day, the outspoken lawyer made a furious post on his Facebook account in which he strongly condemned the investigators, prosecutors and judges who arrested Bishop Mkrtich Proshian and another priest earlier this week amid Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s continuing efforts to depose the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Garegin II. He branded them “sons of a b*tch” who have “sold their souls to the devil.”
Kochubayev was charged with making “defamatory” claims harmful to those officials’ “rights and legitimate interests” as well as their “professional activities.” A Yerevan court judge known for sanctioning the arrests of government critics remanded him in pre-trial custody in an overnight ruling.
Kochubayev rejected the accusations, according to another lawyer who will now represent him. The lawyer, Arayik Nersisian, insisted on Friday that his colleague simply “evaluated” the law-enforcement authorities’ actions and did not spread any “defamatory information.”
Khochubayev’s arrest also prompted serious concern from Armenia’s Chamber of Advocates, the national bar association, and human rights ombudsman, Anahit Manasian. In rare criticism of the security apparatus, Manasian described it as “unacceptable” while deploring the lawyer’s offensive statement.
“According to international standards, only in case of the most serious types of unlawful speech can a person be subjected to criminal liability and especially a preventive measure or punishment in the form of deprivation of liberty,” read a statement released by her office.
Zhanna Aleksanian, a veteran human rights campaigner, strongly condemned Kochubayev’s “savage” arrest.
“We can’t even compare Kochubayev's post with Nikol Pashinian's thuggish vocabulary,” Aleksanian said, pointing to the prime minister’s periodical outbursts against his political opponents.
Armenian opposition figures claimed, for their part, that the lawyer’s prosecution is part of Pashinian’s efforts to stifle dissent in the country in advance of next year’s parliamentary elections.