The request submitted to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) to strip Armenia’s second president Robert Kocharyan of immunity and initiate criminal proceedings against him does not describe any criminal offense, lawyer Aram Orbelyan said while speaking to journalists outside the CEC building.

“This is an artificially fabricated case. I have reviewed the documents, and they have no reasonable connection to any criminal matter. All the facts presented do not describe any crime. They relate to a transaction carried out in 2004 that was approved by the Armenian government. That decision has never been challenged in any way, and Robert Kocharyan had absolutely no involvement in that transaction. Members of his family also had no involvement,” Orbelyan said, according to Sputnik Armenia.

According to the lawyer, years later, when Robert Kocharyan no longer held any public office, his son Sedrak Kocharyan acquired a stake in the company involved in the matter and paid a substantial amount for it. Orbelyan argued that investigators are now attempting to link that later transaction to the deal concluded in 2004.

Orbelyan stated that the issue concerns the territory of the “Master Class” tennis courts located adjacent to the Orange Fitness club.

The Prosecutor General’s Office is seeking authorization to pursue criminal proceedings against several candidates from the Hayastan alliance.

The Prosecutor General’s Office has applied to the Central Electoral Commission for consent to initiate criminal proceedings and authorize the detention of three parliamentary candidates from the Hayastan alliance: Robert Kocharyan, Asatur Kocharyan and Ruslan Barseghyan.