Nikol Pashinyan gives heads of security agencies a week’s time to sack ‘undesired judges’ of Constitutional Court - Hraparak.am

Armenia’s prime minister  has given a week’s time to the heads of the national security  agencies to realize a plan for getting rid of the chair and the “undesired members” of the Constitutional Court. 

Nikol Pashinyan is said to have issued the instruction at a confidential meeting convened earlier today to consider the possible resignation of Hrayr Tovmasyan and other judges of the high court. 

Citing its sources close to the Government, Hraparak.am reports that the discussion was attended by Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan, Acting Director of the National Security Service (NSS) Eduard Martirosyan, Acting Chief of Police Arman Sargsyan, Head of the Special Investigative Service (SIS) Sasun Khachatryan, as well as the chief of the prime minister’s staff. Eduard Aghajanyan. 

Pashinyan reportedly asked also the Police to be actively engaged in collecting compromising information about the high court judges. 

It was instructed, particularly, to find and collect - at every possible cost - the necessary means for forcing the judges to resign. The website claims that different scenarios of coercion were discussed; the participants were instructed not to spare even the judges’ families, close people and friends. Nikol Pashinyan is said to have given the SIS chief a special task to coordinate the entire process. 

The informed sources told the website that the Police and national security bodies have established a confidential external control over all the judges; also, all the possible areas within their reach and means of communication are under surveillance. 

What angered the authorities - and personally the prime minister - is reportedly the fact that no judge at the Constitutional Court has so far handed in a resignation based on the recently adopted law proposing an early retirement scheme. This is actually what accounts for the strict order given to the police and security agencies.

The website says it has contacted the Government for further clarifications, promising to publish more details as soon as they are available.