April 10, 2019 - 11:46 AMT
Jailed Armenian ex-President practices yoga in prison: Lawyer

Former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, who has been in custody for several months now, practices yoga and reads books in prison, one of his lawyers has revealed.

Kocharyan, who was the President of Armenia in 1998–2008, is accused of overthrowing the constitutional order and money laundering. The first case is related to the crackdown on peaceful protests against the results of the presidential election in March 2008. At the time, ten people were killed in clashes between protesters and the police, about 200 were injured. At the end of August 2018, the court released Kocharyan on bail but he was incarcerated again on December 7 of last year.

Lawyer Aram Orbelyan has said that Kocharyan is all by himself in the prison cell.

“He is in good spirits, as he is confident of his innocence, and that this is political persecution, and that he is going to be acquitted,” Orbelyan said, adding that the former President does sports during the walking hours.