“Kocharyan is a political prisoner: purely political reasons without connection to any offence”

It goes without saying that the European Court of Human Rights will rule in the near future that Armenia’s repeated arrests of the former President of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, are politically-motivated and breached his human rights.

The specific circumstances of the President’s case undoubtedly affirm that Mr Kocharyan falls under the internationally-recognized definition of political prisoner. The Resolution 1900 (2012) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe says that a person is a “political prisoner” if the detention has been imposed in violation of the fundamental guarantees set out in the European Convention on Human Rights and if the detention has been imposed for purely political reasons without connection to any offence.

Since July, last year, the authorities undertook unprecedented “discriminatory exercises” to deprive Mr Kocharyan of his liberty. The detention is the result of proceedings which are clearly unfair and it appears to be connected with political motives of the authorities.

There are two applications pending at the European Court of Human Rights alleging that Robert Kocharyan has been arbitrarily and unlawfully detained and the criminal charge is based on unjustified grounds.

The court, based in Strasbourg, will say that the President’s arrests have been designed to suppress political pluralism. The Court will find that there is converging contextual evidence that the local authorities are becoming increasingly severe towards Mr Kocharyan and that his allegation of being a particular target appeared coherent.

Kocharyan’s legal team alleges that the circumstances surrounding the arrest and prosecution of President Kocharyan strongly suggest that they are a clear case of non-conformity with the Rule of Law in Armenia. The most severe corroborated shortcomings:

• the individual judges have not been free from undue influences by the executive power and the main investigative and prosecution agencies;
• statements by public officials about the pending criminal investigation which have encouraged the public to believe President Kocharyan guilty and prejudge the assessment of the facts by the competent judicial authority (violating the presumption of innocence);
• virulent press campaigns by the Armenian authorities which have adversely affected the fairness of the trial by influencing public opinion and affected the President’s presumption of innocence.

The legal team says that despite pressure from Armenia, it has become clear that European justice does not intend to ignore obvious facts. The Kocharyan’s detention has been imposed for purely political reasons in a discriminatory manner…

Sargis Grigoryan
GPartners law firm