Court order to detain Hrayr Tovmasyan’s godson ‘tool of pressure’ against Constitutional Court’s chair – lawyer

The court order to detain Hrayr Tovmasyan’s godson over alleged abuse of official authority is a pre-ordered act amounting to pressure against the chair of Armenia's Constitutional Court, according to Gohar Meloyan, a lawyer specializing in constittional law.

“These are evidently instructed actions. The authorities did not even consider the Venice Commission’s call for ruling out the mandatory component from the law proposing the early retirment of CC judges,” she told Tert.am on Thursday.  

In her words, the recently adopted measure, signed into law by President Armen Sarkissian, is intended to target Tovmasyan personally in an effort to force his resignation. “What they [the authorities] need is to get rid, as soon as possible, of ‘non-governable judges’ at the Constitutional Court,” Meloyan noted.

The lawyer said she also sees the “complicated moral-psychological atmosphere” dominating the high court in the wake of the controversial measure.

“Fortunately, we see that the CC judges demonstrate an examplary tenacity now, dischrging their professional duties with honor” she said.