Tuesday, December 10 2019 13:52

ArmInfo. The crisis around the Constitutional Court of Armenia should be resolved, since this is one of the most important institutions of statehood. On December 10,  the President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia  Ararat Mirzoyan stated this during the discussion of amendments to  the law "On the Constitutional Court".

The country's parliament continued discussions on amendments to the  law "On the Constitutional Court" and the law "On providing  activities, services and social guarantees of officials", which  proposed introducing a new model for early retirement of judges of  the Constitutional Court on a voluntary basis . Introducing the draft  amendments RA Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan noted that the  government proposes to introduce a provision, according to which if  the judges of the Constitutional Court retire before December 31,  2020, then the amount of their pension within two months will be  commensurate with the current salary, which taking into account  allowances will total more than 1 million drams per month for each  judge.  The legislative initiative proposed by the government of the  country provoked a sharply negative reaction from representatives of  the parliamentary opposition - the Bright Armenia and Prosperous  Armenia factions. National Assembly lawmaker from Prosperous Armenia  faction Naira Zohrabyan even showed photographs of dilapidated  schools for recovering which the state did not have enough resources,  while having money for the retirement benefits of the judges of the  Constitutional Court.  Meanwhile, according to the speaker, the  country's public does not trust the current composition of the  Constitutional Court, while the chairman of the court is the fourth  person in the state hierarchy. "This is a national security issue,  and the problem needs to be addressed," the speaker emphasized,  urging the participants in the discussion to jointly build a new  democratic Armenia - Armenia without corruption, falsification of  election results.  Ararat Mirzoyan recalled that for 30 years the  public has been waiting for the coming to power of a force that will  step by step destroy the established order in the country. And now a  new force, in contrast to the prevailing opinion of the impossibility  of a change of power without armed resistance, has achieved its goal.  The new government step by step solves all the existing problems,  including in the fight against corruption. In this regard, the  speaker expressed bewilderment at the Prosperous Armenia and Bright  Armenia factions. Addressing the Prosperous Armenia faction, he  suggested that the party and faction are trying to take everyone to  the old platforms. "Let's build a new country together, I'm sure you  don't need the old corrupt Armenia," the head of parliament said.  Speaking about the Bright Armenia faction, the NA President recalled  that earlier the faction has always acted as a united front with the  former opposition forces of the country. "But today, when we present  our visions of solving problems, the destructive cries are heard in  response. You need to find your place in the new Armenia," the RA NA  President added.  He pointed out the democratic nature of the  document, considering the Constitutional Court guilty of many issues.  

Earlier, the Ministry of Justice noted that as a result of the  application of new rates, the monthly prescheduled pension of the  chairman of the Constitutional Court will be 1 375 712 drams, and the  pension of a member of the Constitutional Court - 1,031,784 drams.  The total amount of pensions of 6 judges and the chairman of the  Constitutional Court will be 90 796 992 drams per month. The ministry  said that if the judge of the Constitutional Court currently receives  AMD 793,680, and the chairman - AMD 1,058,240, then this amount will  add up to 30% of the salary.

As ArmInfo previously reported, on September 14, the Armenian  Constitutional Court rejected the consideration of the deprivation of  authority of its head Hrayr Tovmasyan. At the meeting of the  Constitutional Court in the case of Hrayr Tovmasyan, in addition to  Tovmasyan himself, the recently elected judge Vahe Grigoryan was  absent. The only judge to vote for the deprivation of Tovmasyan's  powers was Felix Tokhyan. Even the second elected judge, Arman  Dilanyan, voted against considering the deprivation of the powers of  the chairman of the court. On October 4, the National Assembly of  Armenia, with 98 votes in favor, 1 vote against, adopted the appeal  prepared by the parliamentary fraction of the My Step bloc to the  Constitutional Court on the termination of the powers of Hrayr  Tovmasyan. The initiative of the ruling party was initially supported  by colleagues from the Bright Armenia faction.  In a statement by the  parliament, the Constitutional Court presented four grounds for  terminating Tovmasyan's powers. First, he did not have the right to  participate in the consideration of the "the Kocharyan case" by the  Constitutional Court, since it was connected not only with him, but  also with the Republicans, in particular, with former President Serzh  Sargsyan. Second, Tovmasyan is the godfather of Kocharian's lawyer  Aram Orbelian. Third, Tovmasyan's previous statements on the "March 1  case" give reason to consider his position partial. Fourth  justification - Tovmasyan neglected all these circumstances and did  not report the impossibility of his participation in the  consideration of the "Kocharyan case".