The Supreme Judicial Council ousted Anna Pilosian, who has worked at a Yerevan district court since 2014, for excessive delays in the publication of verdicts handed down by her in four civil cases.
Announcing the decision late on Monday, the SJC chairman, Karen Andreasian, said Pilosian shared copies of those verdicts with plaintiffs “1-2 years” later than is required by Armenian law.
The decision was initiated by the Armenian Ministry of Justice, which was headed by Andreasian until September, following a recent complaint posted on Facebook by a lawyer.
Pilosian admitted that she did not comply with the legal time frames for publicizing judicial acts but blamed the delays on her busyness, citing the increased workload of Armenian courts. She said the SJC’s decision to oust here was therefore too harsh and unjustified. She stopped short of calling it politically motivated.
“I would consider a more lenient punishment as legitimate,” Pilosian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Pilosian’s husband, Ruben Melikian, is a well-known lawyer highly critical of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and supportive of opposition attempts to oust him. Melikian condemned her sacking as government retribution for his political activities.
“Targeting my wife for the purpose of dealing a blow to me is certainly an extremely immoral practice,” Melikian wrote on Facebook.
As justice minister, Andreasian repeatedly called for a mandatory “vetting” of Armenian judges, an idea that prompted serious misgivings from European legal experts. In February, he stated that the SJC must fire scores of judges, including those who openly accused the Armenian authorities of seeking to curb judicial independence under the guise of Western-backed judicial reforms.
Andreasian was also instrumental in the passage in 2021 of a controversial government bill that empowered the Ministry of Justice to demand that the SJC take disciplinary action against judges. The number of such disciplinary proceedings rose sharply as a result.
In a joint statement issued in January, a dozen judges accused Andreasian of trying to bully them and their colleagues known for their independence.
Andreasian was affiliated with Pashinian’s Civil Contract party before becoming a member and then the head of the judicial watchdog in October.