Armenian PM: Officials responsible for March 1, 2008 to be punished
YEREVAN. Aug 17 (Interfax) - Everyone responsible for violating Armenia's constitutional system in March 2008 will be punished, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Friday.
"I tell you with all seriousness that all those guilty of the bloody events of March 1, 2008 in Yerevan will be punished," Pashinyan said at a rally in central Yerevan on the occasion of the new Armenian government's first 100 days in office.
In July, the Armenian Special Investigation Service charged Robert Kocharyan, president of Armenia in 1998-2008, with violating the constitutional system in 2008.
On July 28, a Yerevan court granted the agency's motion to arrest him for two months.
Armenian security forces dispersed thousands of protesters following Serzh Sargsyan's win in a presidential election on March 1, 2008. Ten people were killed and over 250 injured.
Pashinyan was a member of presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan's campaign staff in 2008. Following public disturbances on March 1, 2008, Pashinyan was declared wanted and surrendered to the authorities in 2009. In January 2010, he was sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of organizing mass unrest. He was pardoned in May 2011. After being elected to the post of prime minister, Pashinyan pledged that the "March 1 case" would be reviewed.