The Ethics and Disciplinary Committee of the RA Council of Courts in Response to the Recommendations Submitted by the PRWB

The Ethics and Disciplinary Committee of the RA Council of Courts of Armenia (herein the Commission) responded to the information note elaborated by the “Protection of Rights without Borders NGO on the criminal persecutions instituted against the participants of “Sasna Tsrer” group activities and other related events, as well as the human rights and especially the violation of the right to fair trail within the trial on the case of Vahan Shirkhanyan and others.

In the decision, the Commission mentioned, that the information note submitted by the Organization was taken into examination, where it was particularly mentioned, that A. Gabrielyan, the chairing judge of the Court of General Jurisdiction of Erebuni and Nubarashen Administrative Districts of Yerevan and A. Bektashyan judge of the Court of General Jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash Administrative Districts of Yerevan, within the trails on the case of Vahan Shirakhanyan and “Sasna Tsrer” Armed Group have conducted:

• «….persecutions against the citizens participating in the court sessions”,
• «…. persecution and harassment against the advocates”,
• «….demonstration of the violations and persecutions towards the defendants”,
• «… application of sanctions against the advocates and defendants and removal from court sessions”, as a result of which the international standards on human rights protection were not preserved.

Arguments were presented by the Commission, according to which obvious or gross violations of material or judicial norms which were committed maliciously or with negligence were considered as grounds to subject the judges to disciplinary sanctions.

The RA Legislation, as well as the decisions made by the RA Justice Council in regard to subjecting the judges to sanctions on the ground of obvious or gross violations of material or judicial norms were listed.

The Commission, having examined and summarized the circumstances presented in the information note, came to the conclusion, that while exercising justice Artush Gabrielayan, judge of the the Court of General Jurisdiction of Erebuni and Nubarashen Administrative Districts of Yerevan and Armen Bektashyan, judge of the Court of General Jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash Administrative Districts of Yerevan did not make material and undeniable, substantial violations of judicial norms.

On that ground, the Commission made a decision on not instituting a proceeding against the above mentioned judges on October 2 of 2017.

It should be mentioned, that an information note on “Human Rights and Justice Crisis in Armenia during the Months of January-July of 2016” was elaborated by the “Protection of Right without Borders” NGO on July of 2017.

The information note elaborated by the Organization, which includes a recommendation package was presented to other competent bodies as well, including RA Chamber of Advocates, Office of the RA Ombudsman, Judicial Department, Council of Justice, Prosecutor General’s Office, and Police etc. expecting to prevent the presented continuous human rights violations and ensuring full respect towards human rights.

The legality issues of the personal inspection of the advocates were also raised in the information note from the point of Article 8 of the Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (respect to private life), as well as the application of judicial sanctions towards the advocates and defendants and their removal from the court sessions from the point of the right to fair trial.

The full response sent by The Ethics and Disciplinary Committee of the RA Council of Courts of Armenia dated 03.10.2017 is available with the following link.

The Ethics and Disciplinary Committee of the RA Council of Courts in Response to the Recommendations Submitted by the PRWB