No Letters Have Been Received About Innocent Detainees for a Year and a Half, Pashinyan Talks About Judicial Reforms

The Acting Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, stated today during his speech in the National Assembly that revolutionary changes have been implemented in the field of justice.

“Throughout the history of the Third Republic, the judicial system has oppressed the opposition, but today the ruling power is experiencing oppression from the decisions of the judicial system. So how do you want the revolution to manifest? For the first time in the history of the Third Republic of Armenia, a detained and convicted person is eating the food provided by the state. Eating state-provided food in a penitentiary institution has been a sign of some sort of indignity because that food provided has not been dignified,” Pashinyan said, adding that while in the past people slept one after the other in prisons, that problem no longer exists today.

National Assembly member Arman Babajanyan, disagreeing with these evaluations, reminded him of the flaws in the system. In particular, Babajanyan recalled the incidents related to the groups that entered the Government and the National Assembly on the night of November 9-10, the attack against the Speaker of the National Assembly, the March 1 case, and others.

“I did not say that our judicial system is flawless. I stated that profound changes have taken place, and the beneficiaries are the people—the citizens of Armenia. As far as I know, there are detained individuals among the citizens who invaded the Government, and there are also detainees from the individuals who attacked the Speaker of the National Assembly, but I will agree with you in that there is a need to enhance the quality of investigations,” Pashinyan responded.

Amid all this, he regarded it as an important achievement that innocent people are not ending up in prison, which, however, according to Pashinyan, does not mean that everything has been done and completed. The Acting Prime Minister informed that judicial and legal reforms have been made, some of which have not even come into effect yet.

“I do not think that what I said should be interpreted as us having reached perfection; I have come to the conclusion that we are moving in the right direction. We could have gone down the path where anyone who said something against the government would end up detained. I want to remind you that in the past, an opposition figure in Armenia was detained for months for stating in his speech that the land would burn under their feet,” Pashinyan continued.

In his opinion, the legal assessment does not always need to coincide with the political assessment, and that is one of the important prerequisites for the existence of a judicial system. “If the legal assessment must always coincide with the political assessment, then an independent judicial system cannot exist,” emphasized the Acting Prime Minister and continued, “What do we want? To be happy with judicial decisions? If the current government is happy with the decisions of the judicial system, then there is no independent judicial system, but on the other hand, the judicial system should not consider making the current government unhappy as its job and mission.”

Pashinyan considered it a very important sign of reform in that if years ago, 90 percent of the letters he received were about someone being wrongfully detained, for about a year and a half now, he has not received such letters.