Pashinyan says judiciary is in crisis, reiterates need for reforms
The power of Armenia’s current judiciary doesn’t stem from the people and it has a legitimacy problem, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told reporters in parliament.
“Now and today who does the judicial system in the Republic of Armenia represent? This is the most important question,” he said. “It doesn’t represent the people, therefore the logic behind the reforms process in the judiciary must be for the system to represent the people. We need the kind of judiciary whose decisions will not be discussed neither by the prime minister, nor the opposition or government or the citizens, and say – the court decided. Certainly, this decision can be disputed by law, but we need the kind of judiciary whose any given decision will not cause turmoil in the society. Our objective is to solve this,” the PM said.
According to Pashinyan, as a result of the latest developments it became clear that a crisis exists within the Armenian judiciary.
“Look what happened. The Court of Cassation makes a statement against the Constitutional Court, the Council of Courts makes a statement against the Supreme Judicial Council, and Supreme Judicial Council in turn makes statements. Meaning the judiciary itself admits that this crisis exists. This is the most important result of what some argue to be disputed actions that happened in this stage. The judicial system has recorded that it is in a crisis. Courts do not trust each other. If the Court of Cassation says the Constitutional Court has made a wrong decision, and if the Council of Courts says the Supreme Judicial Council doesn’t ensure the activities of the judicial power, this speaks of a crisis,” the PM said.
He noted that their objective is not to “take the scythe and reap everyone, everything and everywhere”.
“Generally reaping anyone is not among our objectives at all. Our objective is to have an independent judicial system that enjoys the people’s trust. Do you know what the biggest problem for me is since the very first day as prime minister? I’ve said that I am not interfering and will not interfere in judiciary business. But the biggest problem is that when someone gets caught the entire press and social media write about “why has the prime minister decided to bust this given person”. When some-one gets released, the entire discussion is about why the prime minister decided to set that someone free, what games are they playing. Do you understand, the entire problem is that whatever is happening, including in the judiciary, I see that eventually the hands of responsibility are drawn on me. Despite I’ve said it, I stood as an example, but this doesn’t help. Do you understand what kind of an absurd situation this is, when you have nothing to do with these decisions, and this is the way it should be de jure, and you remain within your constitutional powers, but even your supporters are saying – “what games are you playing, you released him huh”, and the opposition is saying – “he ordered it””, Pashinyan said.
He also addressed his recent call for protests outside courthouses, when supporters of the PM gathered outside all courthouses in the country and blocked the entrances for a few hours. Pashinyan said the purpose of this demonstration was to show that he himself has nothing to do with the decisions of the court system.
“I cannot ignore the public’s message, which means that our political team, the parliament must begin to assume certain responsibility on itself. I am speaking about reforms in the judiciary,” the PM said.
