Zhoghovurd newspaper of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes: The Rome Statute, which is the basis of the International Criminal Court, has become a real headache for the domestic authorities [of Armenia].
The [ruling] CC [(Civil Contract) Party] members are still undecided whether to ratify the convention, they will annoy the Russian Federation [(RF)], not to ratify it, they will disappoint the West.
Let's remind that back on March 24, RA Constitutional Court announced that the Rome Statute, which is the basis of the International Criminal Court, corresponds to the Constitution of the country, and the government of Armenia can continue the process of ratifying the agreement.
The problem is as follows: according to the provisions of the Rome Statute, no amnesty or pardon can be applied to persons prosecuted by the International Criminal Court, and The Hague Court issued an arrest warrant for the RF president [Vladimir Putin] on March 17.
It turns out that by joining the Rome Statute, the RA undertakes to comply with this decision of The Hague Court and to arrest Putin upon entering Armenia.
After being ratified by the Constitutional Court on March 24, the document is now in the government; it was to be sent to parliament for final approval within three months.
In a conversation with Zhoghovurd daily, legal experts explained that the executive may not send it to the NA [(National Assembly)], which would mean that it does not consider it appropriate to authenticate the document at this time.
Let's emphasize that the deadline for sending [this document] to NA from the government is already expiring next week, whereas the CC members don't know how to deal with it (…).
According to the information of Zhoghovurd daily, [Armenian PM] Pashinyan also hinted in the conversation with his [political] teammates that they should freeze the process at the same time so as not to turn Russia against them unnecessarily.
According to our sources from the [Armenian] authorities, at the moment there is no final decision in the executive regarding the Rome Statute; also, they do not rule out that it will not reach the NA.
