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At May 25 sitting, the parliament continued the debate of the issue of the election of candidates for judges nominated for vacant position of judge of the judicial staff of the Anti-Corruption Chamber of the Court of Cassation investigating civil cases.

Let us remind that the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) nominated the candidacies of Karen Aghajanyan, Liza Grigoryan and Karen Tumanyan for judges nominated for vacant position of judge of the judicial staff of the Anti-Corruption Chamber of the Court of Cassation investigating civil cases.

The candidate Karen Aghajanyan answered the deputies’ question. Touching upon necessity of the creation of the new specialized courts, the rapporteur noted: “I am confident that the judges’ narrow specialization will give an opportunity to improve the quality of the judicial acts and will relieve the overload of the courts.

The Acting Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council Vigen Kocharyan presented Liza Grigoryan’s biographical data and activities. In 1995, the candidate graduated from the Faculty of Law of Yerevan State University, in 2011 – the Master’s Degree of the Faculty of Law of American University of Armenia. Liza Grigoryan has 24 years of legal internship. At present, the candidate is a judge of the Civil Court of general jurisdiction of the First Instance.

Liza Grigoryan underscored the necessity of the new quality of administration of justice. “The public expectations and requirements towards the judicial power have increased. The public needs justice of another quality, which shall be based on justice.” It was noted that the same use of the law is one of the necessary conditions, which provides the equality of everybody before the law, the perception of justice strengthens and the trust of community towards the administration of justice.

Liza Grigoryan also spoke about the introduction of effective mechanisms of fight against corruption and the rise of the role of the Court of Cassation. He emphasized the use of the international mechanisms in the fight against corruption and the international cooperation. “In the use of the anti-corruption policy development the Court of Cassation obtained central role: the civil forfeiture is one of the tools of fight against corruption,” the rapporteur underscored.

Liza Grigoryan answered the deputies’ questions, stressing the activity of the judicial legal system in accordance with the independent, unbiased and rule of law principles.

Regarding the law on Confiscation of property of illegal origin, Liza Grigoryan underlined: “Its goal is also the fact that the mistakes made in the past will be corrected, but it will take place taking into consideration the certain term restrictions.”

Presenting the biography and the work experience of the next candidate Karen Tumanyan, Acting Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council Vigen Kocharyan noted that in 1996, Karen Tumanyan graduated from Mkhitar Gosh University, in 2002 – the Faculty of Law of Moscow State Pedagogical University. He has 21 years of professional length of service as a lawyer. He is the Director of Tumanyan Advocate Office.

Karen Tumanyan thanked the SJC for nominating his candidacy. The candidate presented his views on the negative impact of corruption towards the judicial power and right to fair trial. “For many years because of ineffective activity of judicial power the corruption phenomena have not been prevented and disclosed in all spheres of state institution,” the rapporteur underscored. According to him, the irreversible legal processes have been carried out and continue to be carried out in the introduction of the system to make accountable the persons regarding the fight against corruption, corruption prevention, disclosure and corruption. “One of the results of those processes is also the introduction of the legal system on returning the means of illegal origin to the public.”

Karen Tumanyan assured that in case of being elected, he will do his best to raise the public trust towards judicial power, and to make all efforts to reach their goal in the formation of the independent judicial power. “As a result, the human rights and freedoms will be protected, intolerable culture will be formed,” concluding his speech the speaker said.

Karen Tumanyan also answered the deputies’ questions. As the candidate assessed, the corruption is a systemized phenomenon, and the state should fight against it with the whole toolset.

In their speeches the opposition deputies spoke not about the issue under debate, but touched upon the statements made by the Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan a few days ago and gave their evaluations.

In response, the representatives of the ruling faction also gave speeches.

The NA Vice President Hakob Arshakyan gave an extraordinary speech. He asked his opposition colleagues to stop expressing various opportunistic approaches sacrificing everything for reaching power. “Every time, think, what service do you serve to your people, your state? What do you teach our future generations?” the NA Vice President underscored.

Hakob Arshakyan thanked all the colleagues of the judicial system, who direct all their professional knowledge for complete overcoming of corruption in Armenia and administering the justice of the judicial system.

The deputy Gevorg Papoyan gave a speech on behalf of the NA Civil Contract Faction.

Presenting the view of the Faction, he refers to the accusations sounding by the opposition deputies addressed to the authorities and reminded: “The forces with the substantiation of seeing Artsakh independent or part of Armenia, carried out palace coup in 1998, in the next 20 years, however failed the negotiations, the status quo extended under the name of negotiations, in parallel robbed Armenia, without accumulating resources necessary for keeping that status quo, not armed the army, reached Armenia to Lavrov plan and April war, today dare to voice accusations to our address in case, when their leader still in March of 2018, recorded from this tribune that the negotiationsdon’t inspire hope of optimism and there is no trust that Azerbaijan will not attack Armenia and Artsakh.” According to the MP, they seek preservation of peace and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia, Artsakh remaining Armenian and the Artsakh Armenians establishing right to live calmly and permanently in Artsakh. “And those people campaign war, as the alternative of peace is war, there is simply no third version,” Gevorg Papoyan underscored.

As the representative of the faction assessed, the aim is to rule Armenia, because they cannot rule the state Republic of Armenia, but they hope to rule Armenia state, vilayet, sanjak, the autonomous republic, okrug, marz… Gevorg Papoyan is convinced that it won’t happen: the state of the Republic of Armenia will remain independent, sovereign, Artsakh will not be depopulated from Armenians, the people of Artsakh will continue living in the historical cradle, and Armenia develops and will develop its economy, ensuring the Armenian people’s security.

“We cannot go to adventurism and get new Alexandropol Treaty and loss of Armenia’s independence. This is inadmissible,” the MP recorded and added that the statesmen should be led by the interests of our country, the real politics and pragmatism.

At the end of his speech, Gevorg Papoyan highlighted the discussion on the activity of the judicial power, noting that the present the vision on the future and developments of Armenia.