President Robert Kocharian has completed the controversial replacement of the
judge behind one of the most sensational court rulings in Armenia’s history by
another jurist.

Pargev Ohanian, a district court judge in Yerevan, was dismissed by Kocharian on
October 16 in a move widely linked with his surprise acquittal of two
businessmen locked in a bitter dispute with the Armenian government. The owner
and a top executive of the Royal Armenia coffee company had been arrested in
October 2005 and charged with fraud after publicly accusing senior customs
officials of corruption.

The July 16 ruling was apparently the first court defeat ever suffered by the
National Security Service (NSS), the Armenian successor to the Soviet KGB which
handled the criminal case. The acquittal was followed by the launch of
disciplinary action against Ohanian by the government’s Judicial Department.

The department alleged that Ohanian broke Armenian law while adjudicating two
dozen other court cases. The Council of Justice, a presidentially appointed body
overseeing the Armenian judiciary, backed the allegations and asked Kocharian to
fire the judge. Its members deny any connection between the move and the Royal
Armenia affair.

Kocharian signed a decree last week appointing Arshak Petrosian, a lawyer
nominated by the Council of Justice, in Ohanian’s place. Petrosian took an oath
of allegiance to Armenia’s constitution and laws in Kocharian’s presence on
Wednesday. The ceremony held in the presidential palace in Yerevan was also
attended by the chairman of Court of Cassation, the country’s highest body of
criminal justice. Petrosian pledged to be “impartial and principled, fair and
humane.”

Also sworn in was another newly appointed judge, Arsen Babayan. Incidentally,
Babayan is married to the head of Kocharian’s press service, Hasmik Petrosian.

By Emil Danielyan