Commenting on the application that the four judges of the Constitutional Court of Armenia have addressed to the European Court of Human Rights, deputy of the opposition Bright Armenia faction of the National Assembly of Armenia Taron Simonyan today told reporters that the decision to dismiss the judges of the Constitutional Court was initially a political decision.

The deputy stated that the decision adopted by the ruling My Step bloc contradicted the Constitution and stressed that the process needs to be challenged within the scope of law, not politics. “Many well-known lawyers and human rights activists defend the position of the former judges of the Constitutional Court, and this can have a certain impact on the settlement of the dispute in the ECHR,” the parliamentarian said.

Simonyan believes the authorities will most likely lose, and the ECHR will support the judges. “After that, there will be financial penalties, and Armenia will have to pay the penalties from the state budget, that is, taxpayers’ money. The authorities’ imprudent decision is unforgiveable. The country can’t afford to lose funding. It turns out that we all have to pay the price for one political party’s decision that is against the country’s fundamental law,” Simonyan concluded.