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The defense team of Armenia’s second president Robert Kocharyan have filed two additional complaints with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), arguing that the Armenian government is violating Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights in regard to their client, Hetq Online reported.

Kocharyan lawyer Hayk Alumyan  hastold Hetq that one of the complaints refers to a February 21, 2019 statement made by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan about the government’s anti-corruption campaign where Pashinyan says, “In Armenia, those stealing from the people must be caught, charged, ridiculed, morally destroyed and sent to jail.” In the lawer’s words, such an approach by Pashinyan is a direct threat against the rule of law and allows for extra-legal means to be employed against those charged with bribery.

The second complaint refers to the extension of Kocharyan’s detention measure.

To remind, on January 18, the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction approved the motion filed by the Special Investigative Service to extend the ex-president’s pre-trial arrest for two months and rejected his lawyers’ petition to release Kocharyan on bail.

The former president’s team of attorneys appealed this ruling to the higher court.

Kocharyan has been placed in custody since December 7, 2018, pending trial. He is charged with overthrowing Armenia’s constitutional order during the March 1-2, 2008 post-election events in Yerevan. The former president and his lawyers strongly deny the charges as ‘politically motivated’.