Lawyers accuse authorities of pressure on judge in Robert Kocharyan's case

Investigators searched the office of Judge David Grigoryan, who ruled the decision to release from custody Robert Kocharyan, the second president of Armenia. Defence of Robert Kocharyan and independent lawyers believe that David Grigoryan and the judicial system as a whole are under pressure.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on May 18, Judge David Grigoryan pronounced the decision to release the second President of Armenia from arrest under the guarantees of the current and former presidents of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as suspend the case itself and transfer it to the Constitutional Court. This caused discontent of the Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan. On June 25, the General Prosecutor's Office of Armenia achieved through the Court of Appeal the Robert Kocharyan's return to custody and resumption of the case.

Yesterday, on July 16, a search within a criminal case was conducted in the office of David Grigoryan, Judge of first instance, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed by Marina Ogandjanyan, the press secretary of the Special Investigating Service. She refused to disclose the details of the case.

Judge David Grigoryan reported that the case was instituted under the article on forgery, the "Aysor.am" reports. When asked whether he associated the criminal case against him with the Robert Kocharyan's case, David Grigoryan replied: "I believe it is clear to everyone."

Hayk Alumyan, an advocate of Robert Kocharyan, considers the search in the office of Judge David Grigoryan as "a persecution and a method to put pressure on him in a primitive way." According to Hayk Alumyan, even if the authorities have any compromising material against David Grigoryan, they use it for the purposes of blackmail. "It is clear that it is connected with the case of Robert Kocharyan, or rather, with the judge's decision to release the second president. Thus, the authorities make it clear to other judges what may happen to them if they also decide to pronounce a verdict in favour of Robert Kocharyan," the advocate states.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 17, 2019 at 04:57 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.