Armenian Judges Should Make Possible Connections With Banks Public, Lawyer Suggests

Armenian judges should make their connections with bank public, lawyer Hayk Alumyan insisted on Tuesday at a meeting of the Justice Group called together within the legal programs of the Open Society Foundations – Armenia.

Speaking about the financial independence of judges, Alumyan stressed that 80% of civil cases in Armenia have to do banks, that is, one of the parties to the proceedings is a bank suing a citizen.

“Currently, we do not have a law or mechanisms that would oblige the judge to declare his/her relations with this or that bank. Is he/she perhaps a debtor in a particular bank? There are situations when a citizen who has legal disputes with a bank is unaware that the presiding judge is rather dependent on this bank,” Alumyan said, wondering whether it would in fact be possible to find criminal cases that were not resolved in favor of banks.

“I don’t think there would be plenty of these. I therefore suggest that judges are obliged to make their relations with banks and credit organizations public.”