Armenia's MoJ requests another epicrisis of Kocharyan convicted for life

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) of Armenia is deliberately protracting the procedure for consideration of the conditional-early relief (CER) of Sogomon Kocharyan, sentenced to life imprisonment, said his advocate Grisha Balasanyan.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that doctors diagnosed Kocharyan with heart failure against myocardial ischemia. On August 24, the MoJ stated that they had requested from doctors the documents about Kocharyan's health status in order to consider the possibility of CER. Doctors treat Kocharyan's health condition as stably grave.

In 1995, Sogomon Kocharyan, a veteran of the Karabakh War and a Category II invalid, was accused of killing an Iranian citizen, an Azerbaijani by nationality, and sentenced to death. However, in 1991 Armenia declared a moratorium on death penalty; and in 2003 after the adoption of the new Criminal Code, it was abolished. At the time of his arrest, Sogomon's wife was pregnant; and in 2012 she died. In March 2014, his 19-year-old daughter committed suicide.

The MoJ expects to receive the convict's epicrisis from the "Erebuni" Medical Centre to begin the study of documents and discussion of his CER, said Gor Glechyan, the head of the press service of the Criminal Executive Department of the MoJ of Armenia.

According to his story, a relevant request was also made to the "St Gregory the Illuminator" Medical Centre, where Kocharyan is currently taking his treatment.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.