FIRED JUDGE’S REPLACEMENT SWORN IN
By Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Nov 1 2007

President Robert Kocharian has completed the controversial replacement
of the judge behind one of the most sensational court rulings in
Armenia’s history by another jurist.

Pargev Ohanian, a district court judge in Yerevan, was dismissed by
Kocharian on October 16 in a move widely linked with his surprise
acquittal of two businessmen locked in a bitter dispute with the
Armenian government. The owner and a top executive of the Royal Armenia
coffee company had been arrested in October 2005 and charged with
fraud after publicly accusing senior customs officials of corruption.

The July 16 ruling was apparently the first court defeat ever suffered
by the National Security Service (NSS), the Armenian successor to
the Soviet KGB which handled the criminal case. The acquittal was
followed by the launch of disciplinary action against Ohanian by the
government’s Judicial Department.

The department alleged that Ohanian broke Armenian law while
adjudicating two dozen other court cases. The Council of Justice, a
presidentially appointed body overseeing the Armenian judiciary, backed
the allegations and asked Kocharian to fire the judge. Its members
deny any connection between the move and the Royal Armenia affair.

Kocharian signed a decree last week appointing Arshak Petrosian,
a lawyer nominated by the Council of Justice, in Ohanian’s place.

Petrosian took an oath of allegiance to Armenia’s constitution and
laws in Kocharian’s presence on Wednesday. The ceremony held in the
presidential palace in Yerevan was also attended by the chairman of
Court of Cassation, the country’s highest body of criminal justice.

Petrosian pledged to be "impartial and principled, fair and humane."

Also sworn in was another newly appointed judge, Arsen Babayan.

Incidentally, Babayan is married to the head of Kocharian’s press
service, Hasmik Petrosian.