"Fact" daily writes:
More than once, we have had occasion to mention that the authorities of Armenia Day use every opportunity to use various controversial provisions of the laws as a club against the opposition.
One of them refers to part 2 of the sinister Article 236 of the RA Criminal Code, which implies criminal responsibility for taking material interest in order to participate in the rally or refuse to participate in the rally. Let's remind that back in 2024, 1/5 of the National Assembly deputies applied to the Constitutional Court to declare that clause unconstitutional. The Supreme Court accepted the claim, but later suspended the proceedings with the decision of the Supreme Court of Appeals 156 and applied to the Venice Commission for an advisory opinion. A year later, the Commission's opinion was received, that is, this norm contradicts the principle of legal certainty, as well as the EU guidelines on free assembly. Logically, after that, the CC should have resumed the examination of the issue, but it does not do so.
We still in 2025 on December 15, we sent a written request to the CC, asking to answer when it is planned to resume the examination of the issue. The CC had five business days to send a letter either to answer the question in some way or to give notice of the need for another 30 days for "further study" (although it's hard to imagine what "further study" might be needed to answer that simple question). 17 working days have passed, but we have not received an answer from the CC.
The High Court itself thus ignores the statutory requirement. It is difficult to say whether they themselves have not decided what to do, or whether they cannot imagine how not to offend Nikol Pashinyan, but also not to take obvious illegal actions.
Moreover, the schedule of upcoming sessions of the CC is posted on the website of the CC, where at least until March 3, discussion of the issue is not planned. Let's remind that in the previous publication, we informed that, based on the information we have, understanding that it is not possible to accept a decision other than declaring it unconstitutional, Nikol Pashinyan himself appealed to the President of the Supreme Court, so that the investigation of the issue should be delayed at least until the upcoming elections.
Details in today's issue of "Past" daily
