Navigate
X
    Emil Lazarian
  • 6 years ago
    • Categories: 2020

Court hearings on Article 300.1 of Armenia’s Criminal Code fail to start amid lack of quorum

Panorama, Armenia
July 7 2020

The Constitutional Court of Armenia on Tuesday failed to start hearings on the constitutionality of Article 300.1 of Armenia’s Criminal Code dealing with “overthrow of the constitutional order”, a provision which is at issue in former President Robert Kocharyan’s case, due to the lack of quorum.

“There is no quorum,” an employee of the court told reporters in the session hall, without elaborating further.

Earlier in July 2019, Robert Kocharyan and his lawyers, as well as judge Davit Grigoryan of the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction asked the highest court of Armenia to determine the constitutionality of Article 300.1.

The Constitutional Court in turn decided to request an advisory opinion on the matter from the ECHR and the Venice Commission, which offered their assessments in May and June this year, respectively.

In the meantime, Kocharyan’s lawyers decided to withdraw their appeal from the Constitutional Court on 25 June.  

Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS