Former Armenian president Robert Kocharian has voluntarily returned to a detention centre after the Yerevan Court of Appeals reversed a previous court ruling and ordered him to be arrested again.
“I think you witnessed that there is neither law nor rule of law,” the former president told reporters in Yerevan when entering the detention centre.
Mr Kocharian was released from custody in May by a lower court in Yerevan after leaders in the Nagorno-Karabakh region promised to vouch for him, guaranteeing his return if his trial continued.
Armenia’s former president, along with other ex-government officials, has been accused of “overthrowing the constitutional order” by illegally using force against opposition demonstrators during protests in 2008 that resulted in 10 deaths, ending his decade-long presidency.
Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan recently called for nationwide judicial reform with Armenian judges being subject to a proper vetting system to ensure their impartiality. Since the start of the reform procedure, several key Armenian judges have resigned.
