The Justice Ministry claims that Anna Danibekian showed “blatant negligence” and violated judges’ “code of conduct” in her handling of the high-profile case. The claim is based on a controversial video which the watchdog, the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), circulated in February, sparking allegations of government interference in judicial proceedings.
Kocharian, who ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, initially faced only coup charges stemming from a 2008 post-election crackdown on opposition protesters in Yerevan. He was subsequently also charged with bribery.
Kocharian, his former chief of staff Armen Gevorgian and two retired army generals, went on trial in May 2019. They all rejected the accusations as politically motivated.
The coup charges against the defendants were dropped after Armenia’s Constitutional Court declared them unconstitutional in 2021. Kocharian and Gevorgian continued to stand trial for the alleged bribery.
Danibekian closed that case on December 27 without acquitting or convicting Kocharian. She argued that the ex-president has invoked the statute of limitations that expired in May 2023.
ARMENIA -- Former Armenian president Robert Kocharian gestures as he attends a court hearing in Yerevan, September 20, 2019
Less than two months later, the SJC disseminated an incriminating video commissioned by its pro-government chairman, Karen Andreasian. The video purported to explain the “collapse” of the corruption trials of Kocharian, another ex-president, Serzh Sarkisian, as well as three other former officials. It put the blame on the judges who presided over those trials.
Armenia’s Union of Judges condemned the release of the footage as a gross violation of legal provisions banning any pressure on judges and interference in their work.
The video is at the heart of the Justice Ministry demands for the SJC to take disciplinary action against Danibekian. The SJC opened hearings on the petition on Tuesday.
A ministry official, Artyom Sujian, said Danibekian should not have held a single trial on the two criminal cases against Kocharian. He claimed that the judge also failed to prevent the ex-president from dragging out the trial.
Danibekian spent about an hour grilling the official about the grounds for punishment sought against her. She is due to present her objections and counterarguments during the next hearing.
The SJC is tasked with protecting Armenian courts against outside influence. It has wide-ranging powers, including the right to nominate, sanction and even fire judges.
Armenia - Karen Andreasian, head of the Supreme Judicial Council, chairs an SJC hearing in Yerevan, June 29, 2023.
Andreasian served as justice minister and was a member of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party before being installed as SJC chairman in 2022. The number of disciplinary proceedings against judges initiated by the Ministry of Justice has increased significantly since then. The current justice minister, Grigor Minasian, is Andreasian’s reputed friend and former business partner.
The SJC has sacked scores of judges as a result of those proceedings. One of them, Davit Harutiunian, was ousted in July 2023 after saying that the SJC arbitrarily fires his colleagues at the behest of a single person.
Armenian opposition leaders and legal experts regularly accuse Pashinian’s government of seeking to further curb judicial independence in the country under the guise of Western-backed “judicial reforms.” The government denies that.
Speaking during a November 2023 cabinet meeting, Pashinian complained about what he described as the slow pace of ongoing trials of former Armenian officials. Andreasian said shortly afterwards that he has told his staffers to shoot a video on “the five most famous cases” which would identify “the culprits among law enforcement agencies and judges” and be used for taking disciplinary action against them.