On September 17, the High Council of Justice published its decision regarding the disciplinary action against Arthur Adamyan, a judge of the Armavir Region Court of First Instance of General Jurisdiction.

According to Iravaban.net, the Council decided to reject the motion presented by the Minister of Justice; consequently, the judge will not face disciplinary action.

BCoJ member Karen Tumanyan voted against the decision and has submitted a special opinion. As a clarification, the BCoJ deems it necessary to note that according to the Minister of Justice’s motion, given the friendly relations between the judge and the defendant’s advocate, the judge had an obligation to recuse himself, which he failed to do, leading to a violation of the code of conduct. However, the Council concluded that at the specified stage of the judicial examination, there were no circumstances that would raise doubts about the judge’s impartiality in the mind of an objective observer regarding the relationship between the defendant’s advocate and the judge, and consequently, there were no grounds for the judge to recuse himself,” stated Karen Andreasyan, the Chairman of the Council.

As a reminder, the judge accepted a gift from the advocate – ‘homemade brandy’. The latter had disclosed their friendly relationship, after which the judge recused himself: “At the end of one of the court sessions in this case, the advocate presented brandy he had prepared for his granddaughter’s birthday. A criminal investigation was initiated regarding this matter, but by the decision of the Deputy Prosecutor General, no criminal prosecution was pursued.”

Judge Arthur Adamyan insists that their relationship has never affected his work, and there have been no such incidents in the past: “My employee said that he said it was his own creation, let him try it and evaluate it. That’s what happened. Even if that hadn’t occurred, I would still have recused myself. I haven’t been constrained by my relationships, and I would have examined the case objectively and rendered a judicial act.”

For more details, see the video.