“First of all, ‘word game’ is not a word that the VC uses. The word was twisted. However, first of all, I would like to state the truth. I’m not a government official and am not very concerned about Armenia’s relations with international partners. I’m also not a Member of Parliament or a member of the political team to be concerned about the parliamentary diplomacy, etc. I’m a judge of the Constitutional Court, and I would like to be very sincere to citizens in my response to the question. First of all, the impartiality of certain officials of the VC regarding this and other issues isn’t very unequivocal for me,” Vahe Grigoryan said.
President of the Venice Commission Gianni Buquicchio has issued another statement on the events surrounding the Constitutional Court and calls on the parties to show restraint, and this statement has been the topic of discussions in the Armenian domain of Facebook since last evening.
Party of Armenia: · Acknowledges that the entire responsibility for the process thus initiated is borne by Nikol Pashinyan, as well as all persons involved in this, yet another, act of state capture; ·
“The Armenian Parliament decided to hold an extraordinary session on 6 February in order to discuss a series of amendments that would remove the requirement for the Constitutional Court to check the compliance of draft legislation with the Constitution of Armenia. Among other things, this would change the procedure of revision of the Constitution itself. In addition, a constitutional amendment that seems to aim at ending the terms of several members of the current Constitutional Court with immediate effect has been tabled,” said the co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for the monitoring of Armenia, Andrej Šircelj (Slovenia, EPP/CD) and Kimmo Kiljunen (Finland, SOC).
Late last night, the Court of Appeals, presided over by Judge Sergey Marabyan, examined the lawyers’ appeal against the detention of former Minister of Finance and SRC Chairman Gagik Khachatryan. After the session, Yerem Sargsyan, member of the Khachatryans’ legal team, told the reporters that state law enforcement bodies violated Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights in Khachatryan’s case.
I would like to recall the recommendations made in the opinion of the Venice Commission adopted in October 2019 that any early retirement scheme at the Constitutional Court has to remain truly voluntary, exclude any undue political or personal pressure on the judges concerned and must be designed not to influence the outcome of pending cases.
“We are very concerned by the high level of tension between two State institutions in Armenia, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Presidency of the Constitutional Court,” said the co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for the monitoring of Armenia, Andrej Šircelj (Slovenia, EPP/CD) and Kimmo Kiljunen (Finland, SOC).
The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group reiterate their full commitment to helping the sides find a peaceful solution to the conflict and the principle of confidentiality in the settlement process, reads the joint statement by the Armenian, Azerbaijani FMs and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs.
In regard to the situation concerning the Constitutional Court (CC) of the Republic of Armenia, 168.am’s correspondent sat down for an interview with Doctor of Law, candidate for judge of the Constitutional Court Gor Hovhannisyan, who has worked as a lawyer in Germany for many years. Let us remind that Hovhannisyan wasn’t elected judge of the Constitutional Court by the National Assembly (NA) on April 16, 2019.
Artsakh Defense Army serviceman Vahram Avagyan, 20, has been killed from a gunshot wound at 13:15 January 30 at a military base. Artsakh’s Defense Ministry said the circumstances surrounding the incident are yet to be determined.
