Minister of Justice: As of today there is no systemic corruption in  legal proceedings anymore 

ArmInfo.There is no corrupt top-down judicial system that existed until May-July 2018, in which rates were clearly defined. Armenian Minister of Justice Rustam  Badasyan, who takes part in public discussions on the draft Criminal  Code, stated this in an interview with reporters.

At the same time, Badasyan noted that if there are judges in the  country who are associated with criminal authorities, this issue  should be addressed to law enforcement agencies, specifying that his  opinion on the systematic eradication of corruption refers to  processes that occurred in the past.

According to him, the public has the right to know those who  administer justice, and for these purposes the authorities are  introducing and will continue to introduce mechanisms to verify  candidates for the position of judges for honesty.

In addition, the Minister noted that work will be done to improve the  institution of disciplinary liability.

Commenting on the statement by the chairman of the Criminal Court of  Appeal Vazgen Rshtuni about pressure on the courts, Badasyan called  this statement ridiculous, expressing the opinion that under the  previous regime there was such a judicial system that was completely  dependent on the executive branch.

"Today, when we initiate reforms aimed at ensuring the independence  of the courts through the involvement of civil society, this kind of  statement is ridiculous," he replied.

Speaking about the existence of a criminal subculture and organized  crime in the republic, the minister noted that one of the steps to  solve this problem is the introduction of criminal liability for  those actions that were described earlier.

<Naturally, this is only one of the steps, since it only criminalizes  actions that pose the greatest threat to society. We are ready to  listen to additional suggestions and make adjustments", Badasyan  concluded.

The minister emphasized that today a draft of the new Criminal Code  is being discussed, which was supposed to be submitted in the fall,  however, due to the large amount of work, the process was delayed a  bit, but this month the draft of the new Criminal Code will be  submitted to the office of the Prime Minister of Armenia, he said.

Regarding the fight against elements of a criminal subculture,  Badasyan said that this was spelled out in another legislative  initiative.