New sanctions against advocates (video)
Advo cateLusine Sahakyan considered the draft constitutional law "Judicial Code", circulated by the Ministry of Justice, as a disgraceful initiative, which was proposed to impose a fine of up to AMD 100,000 in respect of participants of the trial, including advocates. "They try to silence advocaes. And now they do not try to do it idirectly, as it takes a lot of time. Despite the fact that the Chamber of Advocates does not stay on top, and it is obvious that they could use the Chamber of Advocates in order to silence lawyers, this is a lengthy process," said Lusine Sahakyan to A1+. Ara Zohrabyan, Chairman of the Chamber of Advocates, also spoke against the bill, but Lusine Sahakyan saw the guilt of the Chamber: "Such initiatives are based on the fact that the Chamber of Advocates has seriously weakened and in fact various state bodies commit various attacks and attempt to violate the rights of lawyers." Lusine Sahakyan did not rule out that some lawyers would stop working at all, butshe was sure that those who fight would not stop: "This does not do honor to the country, it will have serious consequences if they try to intimidate in this way." Araik Papikyan, who has 22 judicial sanctions, considered this project as a straitjacket: "It would be more correct to name this legislative initiative as: in order to silence advocates we wanted to apply such a sanction, it would be clear, we would understand it then." He said that that would probably be applied to the defenders of Sasna Tsrer, Zhirayr Sefilyan and other sensational. "Specifically, in relation to these defenders, they reach several dozen, it would be good if they said openly: dear advocates, we adopt a special law for you, so as to fine you," added Araik Papikyan. In response to a survey of one of the media on whether it was not feared that the advocates' activities would be hindered in that way, which could prevent the adoption of fair and impartial judgments, the Ministry of Justice replied that the provision of a judicial fine had clear goals: That is to ensure a normal process of the court session and the activities of the courts, with respect to the high authorities of the court, the trust of the society of the judicial power. Advocates do not think that the authority of the judicial power would rise due to the sanctions. "They have adopted a new punishment policy, instead of trying to change, improve, bring legal proceedings to a legitimate field," saud Andranik papikyan.
