Erik Aleksanyan, the attorney of the former head of the Presidential Administration, former Secretary of the National Security Council Armen Gevorgyan, who is a party of the March 1 case, circulated a statement saying:

“Given the fact that the court did not consider it necessary to publicly disclose my application to the Court for reasons not to appear at today’s court hearing, I therefore publish it in such manner.

P.S. I continue to be the advocate of Mr. Armen Gevorgyan.

Armen Gevorgyan’s defender, advocate lawyer Erik Alexanyan.”

Noatbly, today, January 21, the trial of former RA President Robert Kocharian, former Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan, former CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov and former Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan begins today, on 21 January at the Shengavit residence of the Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan.

During the court hearing, the judge noted that defendants believed that on January 9, the victim’s successor was threatened at the trial; the defense argued that the court did not properly respond to such an incident and therefore found that they were deprived of the opportunity to fully exercise their rights and responsibilities, and report that they will therefore not be present at the hearing.

Robert Kocharyan’s advocates Aram Orbelyan, Hayk Alumyan, Hovhannes Khudoyan, Aram Vardevanyan and Ruben Sahakyan, Armen Gevorgyan’s defense lawyer Erik Alexanyan were not present at the hearing, arguing that they were deprived of the opportunity to fulfill their rights and responsibilities.