NA Speaker: Armenan Constitutional Court Crisis  Continues

ArmInfo.The crisis around the Constitutional Court of Armenia continues. On January 13, Ararat Mirzoyan, Chairman of the RA National Assembly, stated this in an  interview with reporters.

According to him, the problem, unfortunately, has not yet been  resolved.

At the same time, the speaker of parliament ruled out the possibility  of resolving the issue not in the legal framework. "There can be no  question of political persecution of the chairman of the  Constitutional Court Hrayr Tovmasyan." If I commit a crime today, and  tomorrow the new government will start persecuting me for this crime,  what kind of political persecution is it,"the head of the Armenian  parliament said. He also called on not to draw parallels between the  prosecution and the possible resignation of members of the  Constitutional Court of Armenia.

Last October, a criminal case was opened in the Investigative  Committee of the Republic of Armenia in connection with the alleged  abuse of power by  the Chairman of the Constitutional Court Hrayr  Tovmasyan during his tenure as Minister of Justice. 

In particular, data were obtained on the direct participation of  Hrayr Tovmasyan in the crimes committed and it was justified that  according to the results of the auction organized by the Yerevan  Municipality, the territory No. 162 of the building No. 14 of Lane 1  st. Baghramyan was actually acquired by Tovmasyan. At the end of last  year, the country's parliament amended the law "On the Constitutional  Court" and the law "On the provision of activities, services and  social guarantees for officials", which proposed the introduction of  a new model for early retirement of judges of the Constitutional  Court on a voluntary basis.  Thus, the Armenian authorities made  another attempt to send judges of the Constitutional Court to early  retirement. The government of the country proposed introducing into  the current legislation a provision according to which if the judges  of the Constitutional Court retire before December 31, 2020, then  their pension within two months will be commensurate with the current  salary, taking into account the allowances, which will total more  than 1 million drams per month for each judge. 

The institute on voluntary retirement was introduced in Georgia,  Russia, Ukraine, Denmark, Australia and in a number of other  countries. As a result of the application of the 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. 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 authority 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 Enlightened 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 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 lawyer Kocharian 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".