Lavish ‘Donations’ To Armenian Judges Raise Questions

Lawyers meet in Yerevan after going on strike in protest against the Court of Cassation in June 2013 (Source: RFE/RL)

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)””Judges of the Court of Cassation, Armenia’s highest criminal and administrative justice body, as well as their close relatives, claim to have received at least $126,000 in financial aid last year from sources they have not disclosed.

They reported the lavish donations, seen by some civil society members as another sign of widespread corruption within the Armenian judiciary, in their annual asset declarations filed with the state Commission on the Ethics of High-Ranking Officials.

The single largest donation of $100,000 was reported by the wife of Serzhik Avetisian, a Court of Cassation judge dealing with criminal cases. Like many other Armenian state officials and their family members, the couple did not specify its source.

Ruzanna Hakobian, a member of the Court of Cassation panel on civil cases, claimed that her husband received over $17,300 in similar aid in the course of 2014. Another court judge, Hamlet Asatrian, declared a $9,000 donation.

Such donations also appear to be commonplace among judges of lower-level Armenian courts. Artur Poghosian, an Administrative Court judge, told the state anti-corruption body that his son received 7,300 euros ($8,250) in cash from an unnamed individual. Armen Bektashian, a Yerevan district court judge, also declined to explain the origin of 4,000 euros transferred to his bank account in 2014.

“I see corruption risks here,”