Monday, December 2 2019 15:38

ArmInfo. The Armenian government made another attempt to resolve the situation around the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia. On December 2, the  Commission on State and Legal Issues of the National Assembly of the  Republic of Armenia discussed the amendments to the law "On the  Constitutional Court", according to which, if the judges of the  Constitutional Court retire early, they will retain the amount of  pensions.

According to RA Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan, it is proposed  to introduce into the document a provision according to which, upon  early retirement of the judges of the Constitutional Court to retire  until January 31, 2020, they will retain all benefits. In particular,  the size of their pension will be proportional to the current salary,  taking into account the allowances, which in aggregate exceeds the  amount of several hundred million drams. "We set the task with  different mechanisms to check the reliability of the judges.  The  introduction of the mechanism of early retirement is the next step in  this direction," Badasyan explained.

The parliamentary opposition in the person of the "Bright Armenia"  and "Prosperous Armenia" parties opposed this legislative package. In  particular, MP from the "Prosperous Armenia" party Gevorg Petrosyan  asked what decision was made by the Constitutional Court, which the  government does not like. According to him, the proposed bill is  directed exclusively against the current chairman of the  Constitutional Court, Hrayr Tovmasyan. "Let's be honest and call a  spade a spade. The current government simply wants to get rid of the  current composition of the Constitutional Court and appoint people it  pleases," the MP said.

In turn,  head of the "Bright Armenia" party and the faction of the  same name Edmon Marukyan, together with his party member Taron  Simonyan, supported the position of Gevorg Petrosyan.

To recall, in early October, the parliament invited the judges of the  Constitutional Court to impeach president of the Constitutional Court  Hrayr Tovmasyan. The termination of his powers was initiated by the  ruling "My Step" faction. The faction believes that Tovmasyan and two  other judges did not have the right to participate in the  consideration of the lawsuit against former President Robert  Kocharyan because of their possible bias to the case. The decision on  the removal of a judge is the responsibility of the Constitutional  Court, but he did not support the impeachment procedure initiated by  the authorities of the chairman of the Constitutional Court.