The Minister of Justice in Armenia has called for a mass dismissal of judges, amid opposition concerns that the government is attempting to undermine the independence of the judiciary. 

Judge Boris Bakhshiyan

Criticism predominantly stems from a case opened against Syunik judge Boris Bakhshiyan shortly after his decision to release an opposition figure from detention. Critics warn that such decisions subject the independent decision-making ability of judges to the control of state authorities.

Minister of Justice Karen Andreasyan

Justice Minister Karen Andreasyan said the dismissals would take place as part of a judicial reform process. 

“If the Supreme Judicial Council is up to the task, then I promise you that within a year the vetting in Armenia will be over, and we will have the kind of judicial system that you want,” he said during a February 15 interview with RFE/RL. 

According to Andreasyan, the process of “vetting” judges has been slow due to opposition from “European structures.”

“There is some clan-based sentiment. For example, 93 judges signed some statement. I’m not saying that they all are corrupt. But I can see that 10, 20, 30 names are repeated when there is another action,” he said.

The statement in question refers to a reported appeal demanding an emergency session of judges following Bakhshiyan’s arrest. 

Ashot Minasyan

The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) granted a motion on behalf of the Office of the Prosecutor General to pursue criminal proceedings against Bakhshiyan days after his decision to free war veteran and Sisian volunteer unit commander Ashot Minasyan from jail. The SJC is an independent state body that oversees the system of judges and courts. 

In November 2020, the National Security Service (NSS) of Armenia detained Minasyan alongside former NSS head Artur Vanetsyan, former deputy speaker of parliament Vahram Baghdasaryan and Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) member and war veteran Ashot Avagyan. The NSS accused the four opposition figures of plotting the murder of PM Nikol Pashinyan and the seizure of state power as well as illegally acquiring and storing weapons and ammunition. 

On January 26, 2022, Bakhshiyan, a judge of the Court of First Instance of the southernmost Syunik province, ruled to release Minasyan from detention on bail. The NSS had dropped the coup charges against the group in December 2021 yet maintained the accusation of illegal weapon acquisition against Minasyan. 

Initially, authorities did not disclose what accusations had been leveled against Bakhshiyan. On February 1, the Prosecutor General’s Office released a statement dismissing speculation that Bakhshiyan had been targeted in connection with his decision to release Minasyan. The statement reads that while the office had “refrained from publishing anything regarding Boris Bakhshiyan,” it would respond to “publications not corresponding to reality” by his lawyers. 

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, criminal proceedings had been launched against Bakhshiyan, because he had detained a defendant, Nver Mkrtchyan, in a trial separate from Minasyan’s. Since Mkrtchyan had not appeared at a court hearing due to a “very urgent case,” his detention had been baseless. 

Mkrtchyan provided incriminating evidence in the trial of Karajan mayor Manvel Paramazyan. Paramazyan was arrested in July 2021 amid a series of arrests of opposition Syunik politicians. Paramazyan was charged with voter bribery and fraud in the June 2021 snap elections, charges that he rejected as politically motivated. 

In December 2021, Bakhshiyan ordered Paramazyan’s release on bail. On February 7, the week after a case was opened against Bakhshiyan, a Court of Appeals ordered Paramazyan’s re-arrest. 

Bakhshiyan’s lawyers say that he has been targeted in an attempt to stifle his independent decisions as a judge. Arsen Sardaryan, one of Bakhshiyan’s attorneys, dismissed the explanation set forth in the statement by the Prosecutor General’s Office. Sardaryan said that authorities had not appealed Bakhshiyan’s decision to release Paramazyan when the ruling took place two months ago. Instead, authorities were “interfering with the legal activity of a judge,” Sardaryan wrote on Facebook on February 1. 

Former Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan said that he had received a letter from Bakhshiyan’s attorneys stating that he was being “illegally prosecuted.” According to Tatoyan, the lawyers told him that the “the criminal prosecution against Judge Boris Bakhshiyan is connected with his decision to release a person from custody in another case.” 

Armenian judges have also criticized the case against Bakhshiyan. Head of the Union of Judges of Armenia Aleksandr Azaryan released a statement on January 31 expressing his concern regarding the deprivation of Bakhshiyan’s immunity as a judge and his personal freedom. The Union of Judges is a non-governmental organization that aims to strengthen court-public relations through transparency and accessibility. 

On February 2, the Union of Judges released a joint statement warning that the case against Bakhshiyan endangers the independence of the judiciary. It condemned the decision to “prosecute a judge for a judicial decision and to deprive him of his liberty, especially when the judicial decision has not been overturned” as a “restriction on the freedom of judges to make impartial decisions, which is inconsistent with the rule of law of any democratic state.”  

On February 4, Bakhshiyan’s fellow judges from the First Instance Court of Syunik also released a joint statement expressing their solidarity with him. 

While the case against Bakhshiyan continues, the Civil Contract Party has adopted measures to make it easier to prosecute judges. On February 9, the National Assembly voted to amend the process of seeking permission from the SJC to launch criminal proceedings against judges. Previously, seven of 10 members of the SJC had to authorize a decision to open a criminal case against a judge. The new procedure reduces the threshold to five members. 

The opposition parliamentary factions denounced the amendments as an attempt by the ruling party to exert greater control over the judiciary. Armenia Alliance deputy Artsvik Minasyan said that five members of the SJC have been installed by parliaments controlled by the Civil Contract Party.

“As a result of this change, five members of the Supreme Judicial Council can make a decision and send any judge to the criminal prosecution field,” he said. 

Civil Contract Party deputy and chairman of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs Vladimir Vartanyan dismissed concerns that the amendments undermine the independence of the judiciary. Vartanyan said that they will prevent abuses by judges in case several seats on the SJC are vacant.