Armenian authorities' actions around Constitutional Court 'beyond the frameworks of legal logic', says lawyer

The developments around the Constitutional Court are - to the maximum possible extent - beyond the frameworks of any legal logic, with the authorities doing their best to rid themselves of the practicing judges, an expert in constitutional law said on Monday.

In an interview with Tert.am, Gohar Meloyan, CEO and Co-Founder at the International Center of Development of Parliamentarism, addressed particularly the proposed amendments to the law ″On the Constitutional Court″, criticising the draft clauses porposing a continued remuneration (in the form of salary and extra payments) and social guarantees for judges who leave office before the expiry of their official tem.

″Those actions are aimed mainly at Hrayr Tovmasyan, who serves as a judge at the Constitutional Court. After they eventually saw that Hrayr Tovmasyan, as the Constitutional Court's chairman, cannot possibly have any essential impact on the Constitutional Court – because it is a collegial body - they targeted the other judges too. This is a serious cause of concern, arising security-related legal issues, as we are thus facing the constitutionality threat,″ she said.

Noting that the bill was proposed for public debates back in summer, the lawyer described it also as a specific instrument of pressure against the judges. ″The bill looked like an alternative blackmail then, and so the package had to undergo certain amendments after considerable criticism. It has been quite a long time the judges at the Constitutional Court have been facing pressure,″ she added.

According to Meloyan, the proposed model is that of an ″unearned salary″, which the autorities have branded as the ″early pension institution″. ″When speaking about early pensions, it is important to secure the entire institution's functioning. It is important to have certain preconditions, work experience and criteria which judges must meet  before benefiting from the adopted pension model. In that case, however, specific timeframes are issued, which is to say the authorities are virtually seeking to rid themselves of the practicing judges,″ he said.

Related news

• Artificial crisis 'surrounding' Constitutional Court – opinion