Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan spoke about how overloaded the courts are during his speech outlining what took place throughout the year. He noted that the number of judges overseeing a population of 100,000 people in other member states of the European Parliament is 22, but the number is 8 in Armenia. This places Armenia at number 40 among 46 EP countries. The minister noted that effective investigations will not take place with such data. “There are 240 judges in Armenia. It is still not clear yet how many more openings there will be, but this problem needs to be resolved.”
Speaking about state penitentiaries, Badasyan said that, after doing some preliminary research on that sector, he got the impression that the sector was not meant to be governed by the state. “The sector was governed by criminal subculture. Penitentiaries do not have basic conditions or ways of supervising the electrical systems. The prison cells are insecure and inappropriate conditions. For example, the condition of the doors at the Armavir Penitentiary is worrisome. We can conclude from all of this that the state made no effort to have controllable penitentiaries where human rights are not being violated and where criminal subculture is not governing the inmates. We have a lot of work ahead of us. New professionals were appointed and the situation surrounding the subculture has fundamentally changed.”
Journalists asked the minister about whether or not justice exists in Armenia. Badasyan responded, “There is justice in Armenia. Even more, there was also justice in Armenia prior to the revolution. The issue lies with the quality of that justice and how much society trusted that justice would be served.”
When asked if there is a law against besieging the parliament building and whether a criminal prosecution should have taken place, the minister said that this was another stage of the revolution that took place within the limits of the law. The people’s will was once again expressed for changes to be implemented in Armenia and for new political leadership to be formed through the first free and fair elections in Armenian history. “Regarding when the courts were closed off, that was to invite society’s attention to the fact that changes were needed in this sector. If the new authorities wanted the judicial system to be dependent on them, they wouldn’t have made changes publicly. There are problems in this sector that need to be resolved. Everyone knows about seemingly independent justice systems that are truly governed by one party.”
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The minister said that long and laborious work will be needed to ensure that justice is served on a high level.
Hripsime Jebejyan
