Ruben Sahakyan, one of the lawyers defending ex-Armenian President Robert Kocharyan who’s been charged with usurping state power during the March 1, 2008 post-election public protests, told reporters today that it was Levon Ter-Petrosyan and his supporters who attempted to usurp state power, not his client.

Sahakyan made the charge today outside a Yerevan court that is hearing an appeal filed by the defense to release Kocharyan from pre-trial detention. On January 18, Yerevan’s Court of General jurisdiction extended the pre-trial detention of ex-Armenian President Robert Kocharyan by another two months.

Kocharyan was the outgoing president during the political unrest that followed the February 2008 presidential election in which Ter-Petrosyan came in second. Most in Armenia regarded the election as rigged in favor of Kocharyan’s handpicked successor Serzh Sargsyan.

Kocharyan is charged with calling in the army to quash the protests.

“On the day of March 1, 2008, the Armenian Army, the tanks, were simply stationed here and there. They weren’t doing anything,” Sahakyan told reporters, adding that the army was only monitoring the situation.

“There were calls being made to do this or that. Later, when people were frisked in the square, you saw they were armed with sticks and clubs,” Sahakyan said, in an attempt to justify the presence of military troops in Yerevan.

The lawyer said that Kocharyan enjoys immunity as a former president, calling the arrest of his client “illegal and politically motivated”.