New head of the Ministry of Justice: There are already dismissed  judges within vetting 

ArmInfo. The vetting of judges promised by Pashinyan (Prime Minister of Armenia - ed. note) has already started and is being implemented, the newly appointed  Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Karen Andreasyan said  on August 6 after a government meeting in an interview with  reporters, referring to Nikol Pashinyan's promise, given by him more  than 2 years ago, to start "hard vetting" in relation to unscrupulous  representatives of Themis.

In October 2019, the Armenian government approved the Strategy for  Judicial and Legal Reforms (the so- called vetting) for 2019-2023.  The government has estimated the cost of implementing all programs at  about 20 billion drams (more than $ 40 million). On May 11, 2020,  Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan, during a discussion with Prime  Minister Nikol Pashinyan, presented three new tools for the so-called  "cleansing" of the judicial system from "bad" judges. The first,  according to Badasyan, involves the analysis of income declarations  of judges. Judges will have to explain to the Prevention of  Corruption Commission the origin of property or funds that do not  match their income. The second instrument is the commission for  evaluating the performance of judges. The commission will check the  timing of the consideration of cases, the validity of the judge's  decisions, and the maintenance of ethical standards. It will also  form the appropriate "rating" of judges, organize their retraining.  The third tool will work if violations are found, the commission has  the right to apply to the commission on ethics and disciplinary  affairs (6 judges + 2 representatives of civil society).

"There are already judges who have been ousted from the judicial  system. The most important thing is that the foundations have been  laid so that, I can act and report to you on concrete results. Thus,  everything that has been promised is done or is in process'', the new  head of the Ministry of Justice said.  As a reminder, on August 2,  during a press conference, Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council  Gagik Jhangiryan said that Council member David Khachaturian,  together with his partners, had prepared a draft on "cleaning up" the  judicial system (draft law on vetting - ed. note), which will soon be  sent to the National Assembly and the government.

According to Jhangiryan, today the Supreme Judicial Council is trying  to introduce criteria and mechanisms to restore people's confidence  in the justice system. In this context, he spoke about the intention  to introduce a time limit for the consideration of individual cases.  In addition, it is planned to introduce strict criteria for the  selection of specialists in the judicial system, which should, in  principle, exclude the possibility of any agreements.