YEREVAN. – After the meeting with Gagik Jhangiryan, the My Step faction consulted and unanimously decided to nominate him as a candidate for a member of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) of Armenia. Lilit Makunts, head of the majority My Step faction of the National Assembly (NA), told about this to reporters after Wednesday’s meeting between former military prosecutor Gagik Jhangiryan and the My Step faction in the NA.

"Whether or not to nominate Gagik Jhangiryan, also the invitation was conditioned by the fact that we consider Mr. Jhangiryan a professional in his field, and this played a primary role. Of course, all the questions related to the comments circulating in the public sphere, various positions, all those questions were raised, and the impression of the faction in that respect was that Gagik Jhangiryan gives thorough answers. I think that the public will have the opportunity to receive clarifications on all these issues already in the plenary sessions’ hall [of the NA]," Makunts said.

As for the statement of the SJC chairman that there is an age limit for being a candidate for an SJC member and Jhangiryan is above that age limit, Makunts said. "You know that the requirements for judges and lawyer-scholars to be nominated as an SJC member candidate are different. There is an age limit for judge candidates, but not for lawyer-scholars. It is not accidental that years ago a judge was elected on the same basis, in which case no problem arose; it’s about Gagik Harutyunyan [former president of the Constitutional Court]."

Lilit Makunts added that they will submit their proposal Wednesday and will discuss the issue of approving Gagik Jhangiryan as a candidate for an SJC member in the next four-day session of the NA.