Gevorg Gyozalyan, the judge in anti-corruption civil cases of Anti-Corruption Chamber of the RA Court of Cassation, believes that a judge, as a person with a high status, is always a judge and should not have a correspondence (writing) record for which one could be ashamed.

“I learned about this phenomenon from the press, I am concerned in two aspects, as far as I know from open sources, this writing was done in 2020. I do not know who made it public, but it is worrying, it is also worrying that a judge can have a lexicon full of swear words. It is condemnable for me, it is an unacceptable way of working. A judge should not swear at all,” Gyozalyan said in a conversation with journalists today.

Mr. Gyozalyan responded to the observation that a judge has the right to privacy of correspondence like an ordinary citizen, and having a chat with someone should not be a reason to leave the system. “Without considering the specific case, the judges examine cases of defamation, judge the people who make these insulting statements. When you judge someone for that act, you should at least draw rules for yourself, if you judge someone for an act, but you do it yourself, it is not permissible for the judge. It’s a private conversation, unless that third party publishes that conversation, you cannot defend saying it’s private in that case.”

It should be noted that the powers of Judge Karen Mardanyan of the Criminal Court of Appeal and Judge Sergey Marabyan of the Anti-Corruption Chamber of the RA Court of Cassation, have been terminated by the decision of the Supreme Judicial Council according to their own application. Before that, Arshak Vardanyan left the system according to his own application as well. According to publications in the press, the above-mentioned judges made insults about specific government officials in their group, and one of the judges delivered that writing to the political authorities, after which the judges who wrote those insults were forced to write dismissal applications on their own initiative and leave the system.

Journalists also asked Mr. Gyozalyan about the footage published by the Judicial Department, where specific court cases were studied, and the culprits were mentioned. “It is an unacceptable phenomenon for me, no one has the right to make any film/record without listening to the judge, without giving an opportunity to express himself, I have also raised the issue among my colleagues,” Gyozalyan said.