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The Yerevan Court of Appeals, under presiding judge Ruben Mkhitaryan, ruled today to uphold the judgement of a general jurisdiction court and to rearrest Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan charged over the 2008 post-election events in Yerevan.

Speaking to reporters, Kocharyan’s lawyer Hayk Alumyan said that the appellate court has rejected all the complaints filed by the ex-president’s defense team.

“Arrest has been imposed as a measure of restraint. This is a decision made under pressures; we shall appeal it to all the possible instances,” he said, unveiling their plans to appeal to the Court of Cassation and the European Court of Human Rights.

The Court of Appeals continued hearings on the appeals over Kocharyan’s release from pre-trial detention for five days.

The former president’s lawyers are expected to give a news conference later on Friday on the court ruling.

Kocharyan was arrested in July on charges of overthrowing Armenia’s constitutional order during the March 1-2, 2008 post-election events.

He was released by the Court of Appeals on 13 August on the basis of immunity from prosecution.

Both the attorney general and Kocharyan’s defense team appealed that ruling, with the latter claiming that there were also other legal grounds for his release.

On 15 November, the Court of Cassation rejected Kocharyan’s appeal and only partly satisfied the prosecutors’ demands to send the case back to the Court of Appeals for re-examination.

Kocharyan strongly denies the charges as ‘politically motivated’.