CZECH COURT MEETS ARMENIAN ASYLUM HOLDER’S CLAIM OF PENSION
Czech News Agency
June 24, 2009 Wednesday
Czech Rep.
Brno, June 24 (CTK) – The Czech Constitutional Court (US) today
complied with the complaint by Mnatsakan Pogosyan, an Armenian holder
of Czech asylum, against the Czech authorities’ refusal to grant
him an old-age pension. The authorities then said the Czech Republic
had terminated its agreement with Armenia on the recognition of the
years for which the pensioner worked before retirement, which was
signed by then Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union in 1959. However,
Pogosyan’s defence counsel said the Czech Republic failed to publish
the agreement’s termination properly. Pogosyan lives in Prague.
In 2005 he asked the Czech Social Security Administration (CSSZ)
to grant him an old-age pension on the basis of the agreement
from 1959. The CSSZ rejected his request saying that the Czech
Republic terminated the agreement with Armenia through a diplomatic
note. The Prague Court and at the Supreme Administrative Court then
rejected Pogosyan’s complaint. In his constitutional complaint,
his defence counsel said the state did not announce the termination
of the agreement in the Law Digest. US deputy chairwoman Eliska
Wagnerova supported the defendant’s position. "The constitutional law
unambiguously implies the [state’s] duty to publish all changes in
international agreements, including unilateral legal steps. The state
and its Foreign Ministry made a mistake when they failed to publish the
information about the diplomatic note’s content," Wagnerova said. The
courts have to deal with the case again. They are supposed to meet
Pogosyan’s claim. Wagnerova said Pogosyan’s claim must be assessed in
a way as if the Czech Republic had never terminated the agreement. The
CSSZ is likely to recognise the years for which Pogosyan worked in
Armenia while calculating his pension. Pogosyan, 77, was granted
Czech asylum for humanitarian reasons several years ago. People such
as those refusing to serve in the military and Jehova’s Witnesses,
reportedly face persecution in Armenia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
