The Constitutional Court of Armenia is currently facing the risk of losing its independence. This is what representative of Legal Way NGO Ruben Melikyan told journalists at the Constitutional Court today.

“Taking into consideration the recent events, it becomes clear that the questioning of the president of the Constitutional Court is not an ordinary questioning. There was a whole chain of repressions against the Constitutional Court that had seemed to be over, but it turned out that it was temporary,” Melikyan said.

According to Melikyan, the Constitutional Court has never been as independent as it is now. “We perceive the Constitutional Court to be independent from the political authorities. Now the Constitutional Court faces the risk of losing its independence because yesterday, the President of Armenia signed a law on, as the authorities call it, early retirement, and as the opposition calls it, state bribe, and this led to the start of more operations against the Constitutional Court.”

Melikyan stressed that these repressions against the Constitutional Court are targeted against not only Hrayr Tovmasyan, but also the judges of the Constitutional Court.

Currently, representatives of the Special Investigation Service are questioning President of the Constitutional Court Hrayr Tovmasyan at the Constitutional Court, while lawyers and political figures are holding a protest in the yard of the Constitutional Court.

Yesterday President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian signed the package of laws of the Republic of Armenia on making supplements to the Constitutional Law “On the Constitutional Court” and on making a supplement to the Law “On Ensuring of Activities, Servicing of and Social Guarantees for Officials” for early retirement of judges of the Constitutional Court.