YEREVAN. – The minister of justice of Armenia, Rustam Badasyan, did not comment on the court decision on the termination of the criminal prosecution against second President Robert Kocharyan and several other former senior officials in the case on the tragic events that had occurred in the capital Yerevan on March 1, 2008.

Speaking to reporters in the parliament, Badasyan did not comment on the developments that may take place after the aforesaid court decision, saying that it is not within the powers of the minister of justice to answer them.

The Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan made a decision yesterday to terminate the criminal prosecution—under Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code—against second President Robert Kocharyan, former Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan, former CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov, and former Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan.

On March 26, the Constitutional Court had declared Article 300.1 (overthrow of the constitutional order) of the Criminal Code in conflict with Articles 78 (principle of proportionality) and 79 (principle of certainty) of the Constitution, and therefore invalidated it.

PM Nikol Pashinyan had repeatedly stated that the solving of the “March 1” case is one of the priorities of their government.

"The political goal was to completely solve all the tragic events that took place, the judicial reforms, establishment of an independent judiciary, anticorruption reforms, zero tolerance for corruption. I believe there is a public perception that we have shown slowness in these areas, we have not carried out some actions. I would not like to justify myself because it does not matter what arguments will be presented. It is obvious that we have successes in this field, which are not visible to the public, and there is dissatisfaction in this regard.

There is a specific person accountable for each process, and the answers to all the questions cannot be expected from the political authorities. But I believe that we should be honest with the public and accept that we have failures in some issues," said Rustam Badasyan.

The minister of justice said that there are criticisms that vetting was not carried out in the judicial system of Armenia, and he is now ready to bear any accountability in that regard. "Our struggle in the Republic of Armenia—to create an independent judiciary, moral judges, a judicial system with professional judges—is not over, and especially my struggle is not over, no matter what the status," he added.