Political cases assigned to judges with political backgrounds, says Armenian opposition MP

At an Armenian parliament session on Wednesday, MP Garnik Danielyan of the opposition Hayastan faction questioned Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) Chairman Artur Atabekyan over concerns that judges are being handpicked to oversee politically sensitive cases.

Danielyan argued that despite the existence of an electronic case distribution system, some cases continue to be assigned manually, fueling suspicions of bias. “Political cases are always given to the same judges, which raises serious concerns about the objectivity of the process. In most cases, the defendants are placed in pre-trial detention,” he said, adding that many of those judges have “clear political backgrounds”, creating a conflict of interest.

Atabekyan acknowledged that while the electronic system experiences occasional technical failures, it is fully functional. He emphasized that detention cases are assigned electronically, a process outside the SJC's direct control, and that any interference would be a criminal offense.

Danielyan pointed to judge Masis Melkonyan, a former member of the Republic Party, claiming that political cases are mostly assigned to him and that they almost always result in detention. Atabekyan declined to comment on specific cases.