By Naria Bughadarian
YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — Prosecutors on November 26 neither confirmed nor denied a report that they are looking into the personal wealth of two former officials believed to have exerted strong influence on Armenian courts for the last two years.
Justice Minister Grigor Minasyan and Karen Andreasyan, the chairman of Armenia’s Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), were forced to resign on October 1 and November 18, respectively, despite showing strong loyalty to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan throughout their tenure. The two men are close friends and business partners, having reportedly co-founded a law firm years before Pashinyan swept to power in 2018.
In their last acts in office, they engineered the dismissals of dozens of judges who fell afoul of the Armenian authorities. Critics condemned the sackings as a further blow to judicial independence. Minasyan and Andreasyan claimed, however, they on the contrary strengthened the judiciary as part of “reforms” praised by Western officials.
Pashinyan publicly lamented a continuing lack of “justice” in the country on November 15, two days before telling Andreasyan, the heads of two law-enforcement agencies and three senior government officials to resign. They all tendered their resignations the following day.
Citing an unnamed “very reliable” resource, the Yerevan newspaper 168 Zham claimed on November 26 that Andreasyan agreed to quit after Pashinyan pledged to block prosecutors’ efforts to confiscate his and Minasyan’s assets deemed to have been acquired illegally.
