Author: Lilit Nahapetian

                                        Monday, February 7, 2022
Armenian Judge Arrested After Freeing Oppositionist
        • Marine Khachatrian
Armenia-Judge Boris Bakhshiyan,undated
An Armenian judge was arrested on Monday in what he sees as government 
retaliation for his decision late last month to grant bail to an opposition 
figure detained in December.
Despite serious concerns voiced by other judges as well as many lawyers, a court 
in Yerevan allowed the National Security Service (NSS) to take Boris Bakhshiyan 
into custody on charges stemming from another decision made by him recently.
The NSS and state prosecutors requested a state judicial watchdog’s permission 
to indict Bakhshiyan just days after he agreed to release Ashot Minasian, a 
prominent war veteran and opposition activist, on January 26.
Minasian was arrested on December 1 one year after being charged with plotting 
to kill Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and overthrow the Armenian government and 
illegally possessing weapons. The National Security Service dropped the coup 
charges later in December.
Bakhshiyan’ lawyers said last week that Minasian’s release is the reason why the 
authorities decided to prosecute the 36-year-old judge working at the court of 
first instance of southeastern Syunik province. The prosecutors deny this.
“I just find no words to describe what happened,” one of the lawyers, Yerem 
Sargsian, told reporters after the Yerevan court allowed the pre-trial arrest of 
his client.
Bakhshiyan is accused of illegally arresting a defendant in an ongoing trial 
presided over by him after the latter failed to attend a court hearing in 
December. The prosecutors say that the defendant, Nver Mkrtchian, was absent for 
legitimate reasons and should have remained free.
Armenia - Kajaran Mayor Manvel Paramazian.
Incidentally, Mkrtchian had earlier given incriminating testimony against Manvel 
Paramazian, the opposition-linked mayor of the Syunik town of Kajaran arrested 
last summer on corruption charges rejected by him as politically motivated.
Bakhshiyan freed Paramazian on bail in November. But the latter was arrested 
again on Monday after Armenia’s Court of Appeals overturned the decision made by 
the embattled judge.
Bakhshiyan’s lawyers point out that the prosecutors did not appeal against his 
subsequent decision to arrest Mkrtchian. They also say that judges cannot be 
prosecuted for their decisions made in good faith.
The leadership of Armenia’s Union of Judges echoed these arguments in a 
statement issued on February 2. The statement expressed serious concern over the 
criminal proceedings launched against Bakhshiyan, saying that they put judicial 
independence in the country at serious risk.
Bakhshiyan also received the backing of eight other judges of the Syunik court. 
In a joint statement released on February 4, they described their colleague as a 
true professional and a man of integrity.
Armenia -- A court building in Yerevan, June 9, 2020.
Independent legal experts also questioned the credibility of the accusations 
leveled against the judge.
“The work of a judge can only be [legally] evaluated by a superior judicial 
body,” said Hayk Martirosian of the Armenian branch of the anti-corruption group 
Transparency International.
Ara Ghazarian, a prominent lawyer and expert on international law, insisted, for 
his part, that Bakhshiyan did not break the law when he controversially ordered 
the defendant’s arrest in December.
“In the history of Armenia, there has never been before a case where a judge is 
prosecuted for ordering an arrest during an ongoing trial,” Ghazarian told 
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
In recent months, Armenian opposition groups, lawyers and some judges have 
accused Pashinian’s government of seeking to increase government influence on 
Armenian courts under the guise of judicial reforms. The authorities deny this, 
insisting that the reforms are aimed at increasing judicial independence.
U.S. Watchdog Again Blasts ‘Degradation Of Democratic Norms’ In Armenia
        • Anush Mkrtchian
ARMENIA -- Police detain demonstrators during a rally demanding the resignation 
of the country's prime minister over his handling of the conflict with 
Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh in Yerevan, December 8, 2020.
U.S. democracy watchdog Freedom House has criticized the Armenian authorities 
for continuing to prosecute citizens accused of insulting state officials.
In a weekend statement, it again said that the practice testifies to a “clear 
degradation of democratic norms” in Armenia.
Amendments to the Armenian Criminal Code passed by the country’s 
government-controlled parliament last summer made “grave insults” directed at 
individuals because of their “public activities” crimes punishable by heavy 
fines and a prison sentence of up to three months. Those individuals may include 
government and law-enforcement officials, politicians and other public figures.
The Armenian police have launched more than 260 criminal investigations stemming 
from the amendments that took effect in September amid strong criticism from 
local and international human rights groups. Many of those cases reportedly 
target people accused of offending Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
One of them became last week the first person convicted under the new 
legislation. A court fined him 500,000 drams (just over $1,000) for swearing at 
Pashinian in a phone call with a police officer.
“We are concerned with the first conviction of an Armenian citizen under a new 
law criminalizing ‘serious insults’ of government officials,” read the Freedom 
House statement. “This shows a clear degradation of democratic norms and creates 
a chilling effect for free expression in Armenia.”
The U.S. watchdog already called for a repeal of the Criminal Code articles 
shortly after the authorities began enforcing them in September. Armenian 
officials dismissed those calls.
Vladimir Vartanian, the pro-government chairman of the parliament committee on 
legal affairs, again defended the amendments on Monday.
“We have to understand that freedom of speech has limits,” said Vartanian. “We 
have to understand that there are some expressions that absolutely do not fit 
into the legitimate boundaries of free speech. Insults definitely don’t.”
The controversial amendments have also been condemned by the Armenian 
opposition. Opposition leaders say that Pashinian himself has relied heavily on 
slander and “hate speech” before and after coming to power in 2018.
All forms of slander and defamation had been decriminalized in Armenia in 2010 
during then President Serzh Sarkisian’s rule.
More Armenian POWs Freed
        • Nane Sahakian
Armenia - A French military plane with eight Armenian prisoners of war freed by 
Azerbaijan on board is seen at Yerevan airport, February 7, 2022.
Azerbaijan set free eight more Armenian prisoners of war on Monday three days 
after a virtual Armenian-Azerbaijani summit organized by French President 
Emmanuel Macron and European Council President Charles Michel.
The soldiers were flown to from Baku to Yerevan by a French military plane. The 
Armenian Foreign Ministry said they were repatriated “through the mediation of 
the French government and the EU.”
Both Michel and Macron hailed the release, implying that it resulted from their 
video conference on Friday with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and 
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The four leaders also discussed efforts to 
reduce tensions along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and open transport links 
between the two South Caucasus states
“Thank you to our diplomats as well as to our soldiers involved in this 
operation,” tweeted Macron. “We are moving forward!”
Four of the freed Armenian soldiers were taken prisoner in Nagorno-Karabakh in 
December 2020 shortly after a Russian-brokered ceasefire stopped a six-week 
Armenian-Azerbaijani war for the territory. The others were apparently captured 
during heavy fighting on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in November 2021.
According to the Armenian authorities, nearly four dozen Armenian soldiers and 
civilians remain in Azerbaijani captivity. Many of them were given lengthy 
prison sentences last year after short trials condemned by Armenia.
Yerevan regularly demands the unconditional release of the remaining captives, 
saying that they are held in breach of the 2020 truce accord. Baku claims that 
the agreement does not cover them.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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