YEREVAN. – At Tuesday's session of the Constitutional Court on the examination—based on the petitions by second President Robert Kocharyan and the Yerevan court of first instance—of the matter of constitutionality of Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code of Armenia, Constitutional Court Judge Arevik Petrosyan submitted a motion for the verbal examination of this matter.
She said that on March 16, the motion submitted by Constitutional Court Judge Hrayr Tovmasyan and her to a verbal consideration was examined, taking into account the great public resonance of this matter, the need for more effective disclosure of the circumstances of this matter, taking into account the fact that no decision was made regarding this matter; that is, there was no decision on the denial, at this phase the judge also put the motion to consider the matter regarding Kocharyan's petition for a verbal examination.
Petrosyan emphasized that the public resonance of this matter is conditioned both by Kocharyan's person and the circumstances of this matter, as well as by the public authorities' interests in this matter.
Judge Hrayr Tovmasyan joined Judge Arevik Petrosyan's motion.
As reported earlier, on July 18, 2019, the Constitutional Court had decided to suspend the proceedings to determine this matter, and petitioned to the European Court of Human Rights and the Venice Commission for respective opinions.
A response was received from the aforementioned bodies in the summer of 2020. According to the Venice Commission, there is no single approach in international practice to the wording of crimes against the constitutional order; accordingly, in some countries the respective references refer to the Constitution as a whole, whereas in others just a reference is made to the need to maintain the constitutional order—but without defining it.
A session of the Constitutional Court was set for July 7, 2020. But the National Assembly (NA) has submitted a petition to the court, asking it to push back this examination, noting that NA needed to get familiarized with the opinion of the Venice Commission.
