Armenia’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has approved a request by the Prosecutor General’s Office to lift the immunity of Robert Kocharyan, leader of the Hayastan Alliance.
Speaking to reporters after the CEC session, Kocharyan’s lawyer, Aram Orbelyan, said the former president is expected to be charged with abuse of official authority and money laundering.
Orbelyan stated that the case concerns a transaction carried out in 2004 during Kocharyan’s presidency and approved by the Armenian government. According to the lawyer, the transaction itself has never been challenged and neither Kocharyan nor his family members were involved in it.
He argued that the prosecution is attempting to link the 2004 deal to a later transaction involving Kocharyan’s son, Sedrak Kocharyan, who purchased a stake in the company in 2008, after Kocharyan had left office.
“The case concerns the Master Class tennis complex area,” Orbelyan said, explaining that the land had been leased to a developer that later encountered financial difficulties and sought investors. Sedrak Kocharyan subsequently became involved in the project through an investment.
On June 16, it became known that the Prosecutor’s Office had petitioned the CEC for consent to lift Kocharyan’s immunity.
The Hayastan Alliance, led by Kocharyan, surpassed the electoral threshold in Armenia’s June 7 parliamentary elections and secured 12 seats in the new parliament. As the head of the alliance’s electoral list, Kocharyan enjoys candidate immunity, meaning that the initiation of criminal proceedings and any deprivation of liberty require prior approval from the CEC.
