Thursday, December 9, 2021
Constitutional Court Rules In Favor Of Jailed Opposition Lawmakers
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - The Constitutional Court holds a hearing in Yerevan, July 9, 2021.
The Constitutional Court has effectively ruled that the controversial arrests of
three members of Armenia’s leading opposition group elected to the parliament in
June were illegal.
The lawmakers -- Armen Charchian, Mkhitar Zakarian and Artur Sargsian -- are
facing different charges rejected by them and their Hayastan alliance as
politically motivated.
Hayastan has repeatedly demanded their release from custody, citing an article
of the Armenian constitution which stipulates that “a deputy may not be deprived
of liberty without the consent of the National Assembly.”
Prosecutors and leaders of the parliament’s pro-government majority have said,
however, that the opposition lawmakers do not enjoy immunity from prosecution
because they were indicted before formally taking up their parliament seats.
Hayastan dismissed those claims and appealed to the Constitutional Court in
September.
In a ruling made public on Thursday, the court sided with the opposition bloc as
well as lawyers representing the arrested men. It ruled that any citizen
automatically gains immunity from prosecution after being elected to the
National Assembly and cannot be arrested without the parliament’s consent.
Armenia - Former President Robert Kocharian (R) greets Armen Charchian, director
of the Izmirlian Medical Center, during a rally in Yerevan, May 9, 2021.
Hayastan’s leadership was quick to hail the ruling and demand the immediate
release of the lawmakers. Charchian’s lawyer said he is already preparing to
petition a court in Yerevan for that purpose.
Charchian, who headed Yerevan’s Izmirlian Medical Center, is prosecuted for
allegedly pressuring his subordinates to vote in the June 20 parliamentary
elections. He was first arrested three days after the vote.
Charchian was released on bail at the start of his trial a month later.
Armenia’s Court of Appeals sent the prominent surgeon back to jail on August 23.
The two other detainees headed major communities in Syunik province. They were
among elected local government officials who demanded Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s resignation following last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Zakarian and Sargsian were arrested on separate corruption charges shortly after
the June elections won by Pashinian’s party.
Fresh Fighting Reported On Armenian-Azeri Border
• Robert Zargarian
ARMENIA -- Azerbaijani (L) and Armenian checkpoints at the Sotk gold mine on the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border, Gegharkunik province, June 18, 2021
Armenian and Azerbaijani forces have again exchanged fire along some sections of
the Armenian-Azerbaijani border amid lingering tensions between the two states.
The two sides blamed each other for the latest skirmishes that reportedly began
on Wednesday, continued overnight and resumed on Thursday afternoon.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said in the evening that Azerbaijani troops
"opened intensive fire from firearms of different calibers" at Armenian military
positions in Gegharkunik province bordering the Kelbajar district west of
Nagorno-Karabakh. It said two Armenian soldiers were lightly wounded as a result.
The ministry reported similar Azerbaijani ceasefire violations in the same area
on Wednesday.
The mayor of Verin Shorzha, a border village in Gegharkunik, told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service that he heard automatic gunfire “from one o’clock to around
five o’clock in the morning.”
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said that one of its soldiers "was killed
overnight as a result of a provocation by Armenia's armed forces" at a Kelbajar
section of the border. It said later on Thursday that Armenian army units again
fired on Azerbaijani military positions there.
The two sides accused each other of violating the ceasefire two weeks after
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
met in Sochi for talks hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The three
leaders announced that they agreed to speed up preparations for demarcating the
border between the two South Caucasus states.
It was announced ahead of the Sochi talks that the Armenian and Azerbaijani
militaries will launch a direct communication link to prevent or minimize armed
incidents. It was not immediately clear whether they used that link to stop the
latest skirmishes.
Armenian Opposition Demands End To Travel Bans
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - Parliament deputies fromt the opposition Hayastan alliance attend a
session of the National Assembly, Yerevan, August 4, 2021.
The main opposition Hayastan alliance has decided to boycott sessions of
international parliamentary bodies until Armenian authorities lift travel bans
imposed on its lawmakers facing what it sees as politically motivated charges.
Twelve of the 29 deputies representing Hayastan in Armenia’s parliament are
currently not allowed to leave the country because of having been indicted in
various criminal cases. They include the bloc’s parliamentary leader Seyran
Ohanian, deputy speaker Ishkhan Saghatelian and Armen Gevorgian, the chairman of
the parliament’s Committee on Regional and Eurasian Integration.
Gevorgian is the sole full-fledged opposition member of the Armenian delegation
in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). He and Hayastan’s
top leader, former President Robert Kocharian, are standing trial on corruption
charges strongly denied by them.
The judge presiding over the trial, Anna Danibekian, refused to allow Gevorgian
to attend the PACE’s autumn session held in Strasbourg in September. She also
banned Kocharian from visiting Moscow at the invitation of Russia’s ruling party.
Hayastan condemned those decisions, saying that they were made under strong
government pressure.
Armenian - Armen Gevorgian, a former senior aide to ex-President Robert
Kocharian, speaks to journalists in a court building in Yerevan, January 29,
2019.
The bloc announced this week that its parliamentarians not charged with any
crimes will not join Armenian parliamentary delegations travelling abroad out of
solidarity with their indicted colleagues.
Armen Rustamian, another senior Hayastan lawmaker, has the status of a
“substitute” in the Armenian delegation in the PACE. Rustamian confirmed on
Thursday that he will not attend PACE sessions as long as the travel bans remain
in force.
“I would not respect myself if I did,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“Our deputies are deprived of the possibility of performing their duties in
full. We will not tolerate that,” said Rustamian.
Three of the indicted Hayastan deputies, including a prominent surgeon, are
currently under arrest. Kocharian’s bloc has repeatedly described the
accusations brought against them as baseless and politically motivated.
FRANCE – A session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in
Strasbourg, April 25, 2017
Also facing criminal charges are the parliamentary leader and two other members
of the Pativ Unem bloc, the second opposition force represented in the Armenian
parliament. One of them, Hayk Mamijanian, denounced the resulting travel bans as
“blatantly illegal.”
But Mamijanian made clear that the other Pativ Unem deputies will boycott only
those trips abroad which will be regarded by them as “political tourism.” They
will participate in meetings that could be used for “furthering our country’s
interests,” he said.
Anush Beghloyan, a deputy from the ruling Civil Contract party, dismissed
Hayastan’s complaints and criticized the boycott announced by the opposition
bloc. She said her opposition colleagues not allowed to leave Armenia can attend
international meetings remotely.
Armenian Parliament Approves 2022 State Budget
Armenia - A session of the National Assembly in Yerevan, December 7, 2021
The Armenian parliament approved on Thursday the government’s draft state budget
for next year that calls for a more than 15 percent increase in public spending.
The bill at the same time commits the government to cutting the budget deficit
through an even sharper rise in its tax revenues.
It was backed 65 parliamentarians, all of them members of the ruling Civil
Contract party, and rejected by 19 others.
Overall public spending is to total almost 2.2 trillion drams ($4.4 billion) in
2022. Social security will remain the single largest recipient of public funds,
with almost 580 billion drams allocated for that purpose.
Another 346.5 billion drams is to be spent on road construction and other
capital projects, a year-on-year rise of almost 49 percent.
The government also pledged to increase its defense spending by 11 percent to
345.4 billion drams ($700 million).
The main opposition Hayastan bloc, whose parliamentary group voted against the
budget, said this increase is not big enough given the “existential” security
challenges facing Armenia after last year’s war with Azerbaijan.
Hayastan also questioned the choice of capital projects to be financed in 2022,
saying that the government has not come up with any calculations substantiating
their necessity and efficiency.
Deputies from the bloc led by former President Robert Kocharian also deplored
the fact that the 2022 budget does not call for increases in the minimum wage,
most pensions and public sector salaries.
The government is not planning to raise them despite significant rises in the
prices of key goods observed this year. According to its Statistical Committee,
consumer price inflation in Armenia reached 9.1 percent in October.
The budgetary targets are based on the assumption that the Armenian economy will
grow by 7 percent next year. Opposition politicians and some economists say that
this growth projection is not realistic.
The economy shrunk by 7.6 percent last year due to negative effects of the
coronavirus pandemic compounded by the six-week war. It returned to growth this
spring.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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