Armenia Premier Demands Courts Purge as Ex-President Freed

(Bloomberg) -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called for sweeping changes to the judiciary as protesters blocked courts at his urging over a judge's order to free a former president from detention ahead of a controversial trial.

All judges must undergo vetting and those ``who can't change should resign'' as part of reforms to root out corruption, Pashinyan told lawmakers and officials at a televised meeting Monday. He gave parliament two months to prepare laws for improving public confidence in the courts and said he's willing to change the constitution if necessary.

Pashinyan acted after he condemned a ``puppet court'' for releasing ex-President Robert Kocharyan on Saturday from pre-trial detention, saying in a Facebook post the next day that it showed the need for judicial reform as ``the Armenian revolution's second most important stage.''

Kocharyan, who was president for a decade until 2008, was arrested after Pashinyan swept to power in Armenia's ``Velvet Revolution'' that forced former Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan to resign in April last year amid protests over corruption and poverty. Kocharyan faces prosecution for allegedly undermining constitutional order over his decision to order police and troops to disperse opposition protests at the end of his presidency, resulting in the deaths of 10 people. He denies wrongdoing.

`Personal Hatred'

Pashinyan later called on supporters to end the court protests, saying they had demonstrated public distrust in the judiciary and the need for ``irreversible'' changes. The Caucasus nation's human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, criticized the blockades as ``dangerous for the security and stability'' of the court system.

Pashinyan helped lead the 2008 protests and was later jailed. He's rejected accusations from Kocharyan, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, that the prosecution was being driven by Pashinyan’s “personal hatred” of him.

The revolutionary leader's My Step alliance won a landslide victory in December parliamentary elections that wiped out the former ruling party and consolidated Pashinyan's hold on power. Under Armenia's revised constitution that came into force shortly before the revolution, authority is concentrated in the prime minister's hands with the president a largely ceremonial figure.

President Armen Sarkissian urged Armenians ``to maintain peace and calm, to comply with the Constitution and laws'' in a website statement Sunday, after Pashinyan called for the court protests.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sara Khojoyan in Yerevan at skhojoyan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Tony Halpin, Torrey Clark

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