Armenia: CSTO Sec-Gen charged with overthrowing constitutional order

PanARMENIAN.Net - Secretary-General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Colonel-General Yuri Khachaturov was charged with overthrowing the constitutional order of Armenia on Friday, July 27, according to the Special Investigation Service.

According to SIS, Khachaturov overthrew the constitutional order of Armenia by prior agreement with other persons.

The investigator has submitted a petition to the court of general jurisdiction of the first instance of Yerevan to name detention as a preventive measure against Khachaturov.

Khachaturov was summoned for interrogation on Thursday as a witness in an investigation into post-presidential election crackdown on March 1, 2008. Eight civilians and two police officers were killed immediately after the election of a new President 10 years ago.

On March 1, 2008, Khachaturov commanded the Yerevan garrison of the Armenian Armed Forces.

Former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan has also been charged with overthrowing the constitutional order of Armenia.

The Investigation Service announced earlier that it had charged Armenia’s defense minister at the time of the March 1, 2008 incident, General Mikayel Harutyunyan, with illegally mobilizing the country’s Armed Forces against peaceful demonstrators, calling it a “breach of constitutional order.”