Kocharyan: Pashinyan was found guilty and convicted across  three Armenian court instances for the March 1, 2008 events

ArmInfo.   Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was found guilty and convicted across three Armenian court instances for the events of March 1, 2008, before being acquitted under strange circumstances by a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).  Robert Kocharyan, the second president of Armenia and the prime ministerial candidate from the  Armenia bloc, made this statement during interview with Armenia TV  channel.

He was responding to a request for clarification as to why  he has not filed a single lawsuit against Pashinyan regarding the  March 1, 2008 events, given that the Armenian Prime Minister has  blamed him for those occurrences.

In this regard, Kocharyan questioned how and why he should have  approached the court.  "After all, Pashinyan was convicted in this  case at the time as the person who instigated and organized mass  riots. Now they refer to the ECHR ruling, which supposedly acquitted  him. In reality, however, Pashinyan was found guilty and sentenced by  three Armenian court instances, and later ended up free by virtue of  an amnesty—which I find highly unusual," the leader of the "Armenia"  bloc recalled.

Kocharyan noted that the ECHR ruling itself was what he found most  bizarre. As the second President of Armenia explained, it was  essentially a case of "Pashinyan versus Pashinyan." "This is because  the Republic of Armenia did not present any facts in defense of its  own state interests.  This constitutes both an abuse of official  position and violations of other criminal articles that will  certainly be pursued in the future. In other words, imagine a  situation in a courtroom where the defense attorney and the  prosecutor are the exact same person. He simply switches 'hats'  during the session: one says 'prosecutor' and the other says 'defense  attorney,'" Kocharyan concluded.

Recall, on March 1, 2008, following the February 19 presidential  elections won by Serzh Sargsyan, riots broke out in Yerevan,  culminating in clashes with law enforcement. The Armenian opposition,  led by first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who also ran in the  election, held rallies in central Yerevan beginning on February 20,  expressing dissatisfaction with the vote results. The protests  culminated in riots and clashes between protesters and law  enforcement on March 1-2, resulting in 10 deaths, including police  officers, and over 200 injuries of varying severity. On August 17,  2018, Nikol Pashinyan announced that the case surrounding the events  of March 1-2, 2008, in Yerevan had been fully resolved. However, to  date, none of those responsible have been held accountable for the  crime. The investigation into the case is ongoing. The case involves  Armenia's second president, Robert Kocharyan, and several  high-ranking officials of the time, accused of overthrowing the  constitutional order.

It should be added that during this period, Pashinyan was an active  supporter of Armenia's first president, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who de  jure lost the election but claimed the results were falsified.  Following the events of March 1, 2008, Pashinyan was sentenced to  seven years in prison for organizing mass unrest, but was released  after serving two years.