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The Supreme Judicial Council has nominated Armen Danielyan, Yelizaveta Danielyan and Arsen Nikoghosyan for the vacant position of the judge of the Anti-Corruption Chamber Investigating Corruption Crimes of the Court of Cassation. On May 24, Parliament debated the issue of the election of candidates for the vacant position of the judge of the judicial staff of the Anti-Corruption Chamber Investigating Corruption Crimes of the Court of Cassation.

The Acting Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council Vigen Kocharyan presented the three candidates for the judge of the Court of Cassation.

A candidate with 24 years of professional experience and 20 years of judicial experience Armen Danielyan has been a judge of the Criminal Court of Appeal since 2003.

“I want the manifestations of corruption in our society to be eliminated and prevented as much as possible. The fight against corruption is one of the key issues of any democratic society,” Armen Danielyan said.

A candidate with 38 years of professional experience and 31 years of judicial experience Yelizaveta Danielyan is currently a judge of the Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation. She is engaged in scientific and pedagogical activity, has been teaching at the Armenian-Russian University since 2004. In 2015, she defended her PhD thesis on the topic “Theoretical and Methodological Issues of the Development of the Judiciary in Armenia”.

“The establishment of justice in society is one of the challenges Armenia is facing and issues that require primary solutions. Throughout the establishment of legal institutions in any democratic society, many problems and challenges arise, overcoming and solving of which is one of the main objectives of the judicial power,” she said. According to her, over the years after the independence of Armenia, the judicial power has gone through a complex and long path of creation, establishment and development, and as a result of recent legal reforms, the professional Anti-Corruption Court was created.

Arsen Nikoghosyan, who has 20 years of professional experience and 6 years of experience as a judge, is a candidate of legal sciences. Currently, he is a judge of the Criminal Court of Appeal. He is engaged in scientific and pedagogical activity.

“The legal state really has no alternative,” the candidate said, highlighting the steps aimed at creating a legal state, bringing the judicial power and society closer together, and expressing willingness to work with his knowledge and experience.

Responding to the deputies’ questions, the candidates touched upon professional issues and the generational change of the judicial system.

During the debate of the election of judges of the Court of Cassation, an incident occurred after the speech of the RA NA deputy of the Armenia Faction Artur Sargsyan.

The RA NA President Alen Simonyan touched upon the incident that took place at the sitting, the previously implemented "telephone" justice, judicial reforms and other issues.

In his speech on behalf of the RA NA Civil Contract Faction, the Head of the Faction Hayk Konjoryan expressed support to all those representatives of the judicial power who are fighting for the establishment and victory of justice in Armenia on behalf of the political power, the faction, and himself. He mentioned that what happened in the session hall was another obvious and deplorable manifestation of pressure on the judicial power.

In his opinion, electing the representatives of the judicial power through the election of Parliament, through public, live debates are additional opportunity and obligation for both the judicial power and the deputies. “We recognize the judicial power and make it recognizable to our people,” Hayk Konjoryan said adding that such debates are a brilliant opportunity to establish a relationship between the people and the judicial power.

In their final speeches, the judge candidates underlined the importance and responsibility of the difficult work performed by judges.