Chief of Robert Kocharyan's administration accused of pressure on Constitutional Court

Armen Gevorgyan was accused of pressure on the judge of the Constitutional Court of Armenia, who considered the complaint about the outcome of the 2008 presidential election, which was reported to be won by Serzh Sargsyan, investigators reported on August 3.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 19, 2008, the presidential election took place in Armenia, following which outcome, Serzh Sargsyan, who was at that time the Prime Minister of Armenia, got 52.82% of the votes. The Armenian opposition claimed that the election results had been falsified and launched mass protests, which on March 1, 2008, turned into clashes with law enforcers. Ten people were killed in skirmishes with the police.

On August 3, on the air of the Public TV of Armenia, Sassoun Khachatryan, the chief of the Special Investigating Service (SIS), reported that when the Serzh Sargsyan's opponents appealed against the results of the presidential election to the Constitutional Court of Armenia, Armen Gevorgyan, as the chief for the administration of the second president Robert Kocharyan, tried to put pressure on Judge Valery Pogosyan.

"Some time ago, Wikileaks published materials about that. In particular, it reported that Judge Valery Pogosyan appealed to the US Embassy and stated he was under pressure to provide a court decision in favour of Serzh Sargsyan," Sassoun Khachatryan noted.

Valery Pogosyan then suggested that if there were no such threats, most of the judges would rule in favour of opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan.

Armen Gevorgyan is accused of hindering the implementation of justice. He faces up to six years of imprisonment, said Sassoun Khachatryan.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 4, 2018 at 01:25 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.