Police ban on judge's entry into Constitutional Court 'subject to criminal prosecution' - ex-justice minister  

In an interview with Tert.am, a former minister of justice, Davit Harutyunyan, addressed yesterday's incident outside the Constitutional Court, describing the tightened police ban on a judge's entry as an act "liable to criminal prosecution".

Harutyunyan also commented on the subsequent statement by the Police, which he said is absolutely untrue and unrelated to either law or justice.

"The problem is more profound in essence; it is a gross breach of the Constitution. But even if we set aside the breach, the clarification by the Police has nothing to do with exercising justice," he noted.

Addressing the recently amended law "On the Constitutional Court", Harutyunyan  described it as a prompt action by the political majority to correct the error amounting to the gross constitutional breach.

"They admitted, in practice, that they had a serious problem with a constitutional law. Preventing a judge from entering the building at a moment when the law has not even taken effect implies an act subject to prosecution under the Criminal Code," he said, insisting that Hrant Nazaryan is "fully authorized" to enter the courthouse.

"Obstruction of justice is enshrined in another article, i.e. - Article 332 of the Criminal Code. What the act implies is banning a judge from carrying out any action. In this particular case, we are dealing with a situation when a judge who is not yet deprived of his status wishes to exercise his authority which, among other things, includes also access to the physical premises designed for performing his work and authority in question," the former minister said, recommending that Nazaryan demand criminal liability on the level of the Prosecutor General's Office.  

 "Should the criminal case be rejected, it will be blatantly illegal, and those who reject to institute a criminal proceeding will be brought to account," he said, considering the police operations an explicit hint of a political process.

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