24 New Judge Positions to Be Added; Anti-Corruption and Appeal Anti-Corruption Courts Established

The government approved a draft amendment to the "Judicial Code of the Republic of Armenia" and several other laws during its meeting today on January 14. The issue was presented by the Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan, who noted that this package introduces two specializations: an institute of specialized judges conducting judicial oversight of pre-trial proceedings and the specialization of judges investigating corruption offenses.

"Statistical data from the judiciary indicate that judges with criminal specializations also review cases related to judicial oversight of pre-trial proceedings, such as detention requests and search warrant applications. We are talking about fundamentally different phenomena, and we believe that specialization in judicial oversight of pre-trial proceedings is necessary for enhancing the effectiveness of the review process. Furthermore, our anti-corruption strategy suggests that we should also introduce specialization in the investigation of corruption offenses," said the minister.

He also provided statistical data, noting that from July 1, 2019, to July 1, 2020, 275 criminal cases related to corruption offenses were being examined in court, while the prosecution conducts judicial oversight of approximately 2,228 criminal cases in pre-trial proceedings. "From this, we can conclude that there is a trend of a 30 percent increase in the judicial system’s examination of corruption offenses. We are also solving another issue with this package, which is that the locations of the courts and the schedules of judges on duty will be made public. This means that it will be clear to everyone which judge will be assigned to, for example, a detention request. We propose to publish only the locations of the courts that are on duty, without disclosing the names of the judges on duty," Badasyan added.

The increase in the number of judges is planned for both the first instance general jurisdiction courts (21 positions) and the appellate criminal court (3 positions).