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The Civil Contract Faction of the National Assembly nominated Karen Tumanyan’s candidacy in the position of the member of Supreme Judicial Council (SJC). The issue was debated at the NA sitting on February 7.

On behalf of the Civil Contract Faction the deputy Arpine Davoyan presented the candidate’s biography and the work experience.

Karen Tumanyan thanked the Civil Contract Faction for nominating his candidacy.

The candidate presented his views on the independence of the court complying with the criteria of the legal state, the efficiency of the judicial system activity, on displaying respect towards the court and on keeping in the centre of permanent attention the judges’ building integrity.

“Despite the large-scale work done and being done and the efforts made at present for ensuring the independence of the judicial power and judges, the judicial system of our country still completely does not correspond with the legal and democratic standards,” the rapporteur underscored. He voiced that in case of being elected, the main goal of his activity within the scope of the authorities of the SJC member will be to promote the increase of public trust towards the judicial power.

According to Karen Tumanyan, the good reputation of the judicial power, the independence and the effective work of the court greatly depend on the judge’s building integrity: “The judge is obliged to keep his/her honour and dignity high and avoid what can tarnish the reputation of the judge and judicial power, decrease the public trust towards judicial power, harm the judge’s reputation and put under doubt his/her impartiality.” According to the candidate, the interest of the judge with good manners is the justice, and the protection of the interest of the judge with good manners is the duty of the SJC. “The judge with good manners should be protected, the intervention to his/her activity is intolerable and condemnable,” Karen Tumanyan opined and added that in being elected the issue of the judge’s building integrity will be in the centre of his attention.

During the Q&A session and speeches, the deputies touched upon having independent judicial system, the role of the SJC in ensuring shorter examination of the judicial cases, the increase of the number of judges, the judicial and legal reforms, etc. The candidate deemed inadmissible the public debates on the judicial cases.

In his extraordinary speech the NA President Alen Simonyan, opposing the observations sounded in the speech of the deputy of the Armenia Faction Garnik Danielyan, noted: “Nobody says that Azerbaijan and Turkey are not hostile against us. We should also record that during the last hundred years, for obvious reasons, how we were inclined towards our neighbouring countries. We have been hostile in the same way.”