David Harutyunyan on Pashinyan`s speech: The subtext of Prime  Minister`s statements about judicial system contains threats

ArmInfo. Statements made in recent days by officials on a number of sensational cases under investigation, and judicial verticals are often radical. This is stated in the statement of the member of the supreme body of the Republican Party of Armenia, former Minister of Justice David Harutyunyan.

Harutyunyan noted that such statements violated the existing legal  norms, as a result of which the authors of these statements invade  the sphere of justice. In particular, Arutyunyan's statement reads:  "The statements of the head of the Special Investigative Service  (SIS) cause concern, however, the Prime Minister's statements are  much more worrisome, which have recently begun to be repeated more  and more often, including Pashinyan's statement made by him at a  rally on August 17. The subtext of these statements contains threats  against judges who deviate from the "radius of expectations."  Meanwhile, both the Constitution and the Judicial Code have fixed a  number of basic principles and guarantees that are called to protect  the judiciary and its carriers from undue influence.

In particular, the Judicial Code establishes that state and local  self-government bodies, as well as officials, are obliged to refrain  from actions that may pose a threat to the independence of the court  or judge. In cases of obvious, gross and deliberate violations of  this prohibition, the Supreme Judicial Council, as an independent  state body, must fulfill its basic constitutional function, namely,  to guarantee the independence of the courts and judges. "

To note, on August 17, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan spoke  at a rally dedicated to the 100 days of the reign of the new  government of Armenia, demanding the creation of transitional justice  bodies in the country. In this regard, he noted that today there are  growing voices of opinion that a significant part of the judiciary  serviced the corrupt system and was its component. "In this sense,  the mistrust of the judicial system remains very deep, which is  certainly a very delicate topic, and we should not be tempted to  interfere in the affairs of the judicial system in any case, but I  want to say that from the first day I was prime minister, but I  refused to do so, but on the other hand, I want to emphasize that  this does not mean that some judges should continue to receive  instructions from representatives of the previous corrupt  authorities. th e previous government, and receiving instructions  from them judges - grasp the mind and do not try to fool around with  people, "- said Pashinyan. According to him, the organs of  transitional justice may be needed because there are many problems in  the legislation of Armenia. He explained that the law "On illegal  enrichment" came into force on July 1, 2017, and formally returning  the loot before this date can cause problems.