At this point Advocate Vahe Grigoryan and Davit Khachaturyan, practitioner in the field of human rights protection, have passed the second stage of the interviews for Armenia`s judge at the ECHR. Arayik Melkumyan, judge at the court of general jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash communities of Yerevan has just had an interview with the Competition Commission.
To the question of the president of Advocates` Chamber Ara Zohrabyan whether judges in Armenia are independent, the judge answered: “Yes, I think judges in Armenia are independent, and having been a judge myself, I can state that. There are cases, where some relatives and acquaintances appear, people who ask for certain things, nevertheless the court is independent”, said the judge.
Speaking of social drawbacks, the judge underlined people`s mistrust of judicial system. “I can say from my own experience, that one of the parties to the case is always discontent with the court ruling, and that party always tries to express their discontent, creating an atmosphere of mistrust towards the court”.
At this moment the Commission has started the interview with Davit Hakobyan, Full member of the WTA, Legal counselor at the NGO of “Protection of the rights of tax-payers and entrepreneurs”, and afterwards Counsuler to the head of RA Constitutional Court President Yeghishe Kirakosyan and judge at the court of general jurisdiction of Malatia-Sebastia communities of Yerevan Nora Karapetyan will be interviewed.
