YEREVAN. – The Constitutional Court on Tuesday left for the deliberation room to make a decision on the petitions—by second President Robert Kocharyan and the Yerevan court of first instance—to determine the constitutionality of Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code of Armenia.

But Constitutional Court President Arman Dilanyan did not say anything about when the aforesaid decision would be announced.

Constitutional Court Judges Arevik Petrosyan and Hrayr Tovmasyan’s motion to consider these petitions verbally was denied by a vote of 4 for and 4 against.

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.