YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — An Armenian court has ruled that the nation's former president should be put in custody on charges linked to the dispersal of a 2008 protest.

Robert Kocharian spent two weeks in jail last summer on charges of violating the constitutional order by sending police to disperse the protest in the Armenian capital of Yerevan. He was freed on appeal, but on Friday a higher court ordered that he should stay behind bars.

Kocharian's lawyer said he walked to jail without waiting for police to escort him there.

Kocharian rejects the charges, calling them a political vendetta by incumbent Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, who helped stage the 2008 protest.

Pashinian came to power in May after spearheading protests that ousted his predecessor. Pashinian's party is set to sweep an early parliamentary election this Sunday.