Wednesday, December 11 2019 11:25

ArmInfo. At the meeting on December 11 in the second and final reading, the Armenian parliament amended 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 into the  current legislation 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. Thus, as the  Minister noted, an attempt is being made to resolve the crisis around  the Constitutional Court.

Earlier, the Ministry of Justice noted that as a result of the  application of new rates, the monthly 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.

Speaking from the rostrum of the Parliament on December 11, Naira  Zohrabyan, lawmaker of the National Assembly from the Prosperous  Armenia faction, noted that authorities in various formats have  repeatedly spoken about the judges of the Constitutional Court as  criminals, nevertheless, rewarding them with today's decision. This,  according to the lawmaker, is illogical. She described the document  itself as political pressure and pressure on the structure with which  the authorities cannot settle scores in the legal field by making a  political deal. "We don't like you and you must leave" that's your  motto," the lawmaker said, noting that this approach is contrary to  the democratic values proclaimed after the velvet revolution.

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 Constitutional Court "the  Kocharyan case", since he 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".