Armenia's Central Election Commission has approved the criminal prosecution of Robert Kocharyan.

On June 14, the Central Election Commission of Armenia announced the final results after the vote recount. According to them, Prosperous Armenia received 3.893% of the vote, failing to pass the parliamentary threshold. Three parties entered parliament: Civil Contract with 49.74% of the vote, the Strong Armenia bloc with 23.27%, and the Armenia bloc with 9.92%. The Civil Contract party received 64 mandates in parliament, the Strong Armenia bloc received 29 mandates, and the Armenia bloc received 12 mandates. Six opposition parties declared the elections illegitimate and blamed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for further escalation of the situation.

Lawyer Aram Orbelyan announced the Central Electoral Commission's decision in a conversation with journalists after the CEC meeting, Novosti-Armenia reported today.

He clarified that Kocharyan would be charged with abuse of office and money laundering.

Earlier, Orbelyan told journalists that the prosecutor's office's motion was related to a deal made in 2004 during Kocharyan's presidency and approved by the Armenian government. According to the lawyer, this deal was never contested, and Robert Kocharyan himself and his family members had nothing to do with it, Armenpress reports.

"Later, in 2008, when Robert Kocharyan no longer held public office, his son Sedrak Kocharyan acquired a stake in this company, paying a significant sum for it. And now they are somehow trying to connect this to the 2004 deal. We are talking about the territory of the Master Klass tennis club," Orbelyan said.

According to the lawyer, the plot was leased, after which the lessee began developing the territory at his own expense, but in 2008 he encountered financial difficulties. In search of investment, an offer was made, among others, to Sedrak Kocharyan, who subsequently took part in the project.

Previously, the second president of Armenia was a defendant in the case of the dispersal of a rally in Yerevan on March 1-2, 2008, during which 10 people were killed. In March 2021, the Constitutional Court of Armenia found the charges against Kocharyan and other defendants in the case of overthrowing the government unconstitutional, after which the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction dropped their criminal prosecution. In November 2024, the state prosecutor reclassified the charges against Kocharyan and three other high-ranking officials related to the same events as abuse of power.

Robert Kocharyan was also accused of money laundering, fraud, and accepting a large bribe, but his prosecution under these articles was dropped due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

The Prosperous Armenia Party of oligarch Gagik Tsarukyan, the Armenia bloc of former president href="https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/9586">Robert Kocharyan and businessman Samvel Karapetyan's "Strong Armenia" bloc are the most pro-Russian participants in the Armenian parliamentary elections, analysts previously noted.

The parliamentary elections have effectively become a referendum on the future of the current government and Armenia's foreign policy. The "Caucasian Knot" published a report titled "2026 Elections to the National Assembly (Parliament) of Armenia".