The several hundred judges gathered in Yerevan to fill a vacant seat in the SJC reserved for one of them. Only judges formally notified by the judicial watchdog can run for it. The SJC staff sent out such notifications only to provincial judges, excluding their colleagues working in Yerevan courts from the contest.
Several prominent judges condemned the decision as illegal. One of them, Davit Balayan, said he has challenged it in court.
“In my view, the judicial department predetermined the circle of judges eligible for nomination,” Balayan told reporters. “I believe this cannot be done.”
The SJC said that provincial judges are not among its current nine members and that it believes the remaining seat should be given to one of them. Most participants of Armenia’s General Assembly of Judges were unconvinced by that explanation, postponing the election of the SJC member.
The judicial watchdog has wide-ranging powers, including the right to nominate, sanction and even fire judges. It is headed by Karen Andreasian, a former justice minister widely regarded as a political ally of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. Andreasian and four other SJC members were installed by the Armenian parliament controlled by Pashinian’s party. The four others were elected by the General Assembly.
Over the past year, the SJC has significantly increased the number of disciplinary proceedings against judges accused by the Ministry of Justice of various violations. Armenian opposition leaders and some legal experts claim that this is part of government attempts to further curb judicial independence in Armenia under the guise of Western-backed “judicial reforms.” Pashinian’s government denies these claims.
The SJC controversially dismissed four judges as recently as on July 3. One of them, Davit Harutiunian, was ousted after saying that the SJC arbitrarily fires his colleagues at the behest of a single person. The Ministry of Justice accused him of breaching the Judicial Code and discrediting the Armenian judiciary.
“I believe that Mr. Harutiunian was unfairly ousted from the judicial system,” Balayan said in this regard.
“I am very concerned about so many disciplinary proceedings … I am concerned that four judges can be terminated in one day,” said another district court judge, Arman Hovannisian.
Vazgen Rshtuni, a judge of Armenia’s Court of Appeals, echoed those concerns and said he and his colleagues should be able to openly discuss them.
“The Supreme Judicial Council is not a holy site and the people working there are not saints either,” Rshtuni told journalists.
But another senior judge, Gevorg Gyozalian, said his colleagues should stay away from the press. “The only platform for addressing our problems is the General Assembly,” said Gyozalian, who worked as Pashinian’s private lawyer before being appointed to the Court of Cassation last year.