“For some reason, the authorities, the new Minister of Justice, use their decisions and hold consultations in the presence of representatives of the oligopoly network, from which he also elected a Deputy Minister. This is amazing, but also a fact that needs to be recorded,” Mr. Movses Aristakesyan Movses Aristakesyan, President of the “Center for Economic Rights” NGO and a member of Governing Board of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia, said at the expert online workshop on the study “Integrity Checking and Responsibility of Judges under the extraordinary conditions (of transitional justice): International experience and mechanisms for implementation in Armenia” organized jointly by the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia, and Armenian Lawyers’ Association (ALA) was held on 8 November.

According to him, the strategy of judicial reforms envisaged that a fact-finding commission was to be set up within the framework of transitional justice in March last year, but neither the commission was set up nor it was talked about.

“That is, the law was not fulfilled. Neither the Prime Minister, nor the Minister, or anyone who should have monitored the implementation of that strategy speaks about it.

Moreover, when we formed a consortium within our coalition and applied to the Eurasia Partnership Foundation to set up the tools of the fact-finding committee, we started the function of that group, at that time, the tender decision-making committee within the framework of the Eurasia Partnership Foundation’s Data for Accountable and Transparent Action Program “DATA” with the participation of representatives of the oligopoly network, rejected the application, saying that the fact-finding group will be carried out by the state body and there is no need for the civil society network to deal with it,” Movses Aristakesyan said, noting that he sees a systemic corruption mechanism between those governing bodies and a certain sector of civil society, which should be excluded.

He also spoke about the social guarantees provided to judges and prosecutors.

“We have provided a lot of social guarantees to judges and prosecutors. We have reached absurdity․ We have provided insurance against accidents. I do not know why we do not insurance against accidents for a proud citizen of the Republic of Armenia, but for example, where the prosecutor may have an accident with his car, for that he is insured at the expense of public funds. This should also be reviewed,” Aristakesyan said.