“Some judges embarrass the country”
Armenia's court system is the Achiles' Heel for Minister of Justice Hrair Tovmasyan.
"The reforms are taking place at a very slow pace. I envision raising the level of confidence in this system next year. There are judges that are defecting this system and are causing problems for the country's development," the minister mentioned as he summed up his activities in the past 11 months during a press conference today.
Justice Minister Hrair Tovmasyan says if he were to rate his work in the past 11 months, he would give a score of 5 for the register, 3 for the judicial branch of government, 4 for the notaries and 3.5 for the penitentiaries. He didn't give a score of 2 to nobody.
Minister Tovmasyan is mainly concerned about the state of the penitentiaries and the deaths registered at the penitentiaries. "There are more things incomplete than complete. In 2010, Armenia had 37 death cases and 26 in 2011. Of course, this is a large figure, but it seems as though I managed to reduce the number. My next step is to reduce this number by 20-30 percent, even though it is not that easy."
Hrair Tovmasyan's primary goal is to build new penitentiaries. "When I take a look at the penitentiaries, I get the impression that there is no need to spend money, but there is a need to build new types of penitentiaries with a new philosophy."
According to Tovmasyan, in 2013 Armenia will have a new, European-style penitentiary in Armavir and "there will no longer be a need to keep the killer who has caused the death of a person as a result of a traffic violation, the impostor and the robber in the same place. The current system can't serve as a corrective penitentiary when prisoners are kept together and corrected. That is the reason why Armenia has a large percentage of double criminals."
If the government provides the Ministry of Justice with a 21,000 square meter building in Yerevan, that will allow to close the "Erebuni", "Nubarashen" and "Vardashen" penitentiaries, as well as the hospital penitentiary."
People to be disappointed with Ombudsman?
The Minister of Justice views the Ombudsman as his "natural ally".
"However, I fear that, God forbid, the people feel disappointed with the Ombudsman. That will be more dangerous," Minister Tovmasyan said, touching upon Ombudsman Karen Andreasyan's statement that he is mostly disappointed with the court system in 2011.
According to Hrair Tovmasyan, no matter how good the Ombudsman's intention is, the content and the procedures can't be illegitimate. "I wouldn't like to give any evaluations of the Ombudsman, but I think after a while, we will come to terms on a rather broad range of cooperation. I believe that his considerations to make changes in the spheres are honest," Minister Tovmasyan noted.
In 2011, the RA Ministry of Justice received 3,263 appeals, while there were only 2,796 in 2010. Out of the appeals, 627 were related to the judicial system.
