Justice minister says ready for political responsibility for failure of vetting

Armenia’s justice minister Rustam Badasyan speaking to reporters at the NA today said he feels regret over the processes that took place in the criminal case of Armenia’s second president Robert Kocharyan and other former top officials.

“There is already a court ruling. The prosecution must decide whether these acts are subjected to appeal or not. I cannot comment on the actions of prosecution, court or other peoples and bodies,” the minister said.

To the remark that the revelation of March 1 case was declared as priority by the ruling political team, Badasyan said there are concrete responsible for each process and one should not expect answers to all the questions from political authorities.

“It is necessary to be frank in relations with the public and accept that we have failed in some issues,” the minister said.

He noted that the most criticism comes for the failure of vetting and added about readiness to bear political responsibility for it.

“I am the key responsible for the reforms in the judicial sector. The main target of the criticism is that vetting was not done. I am ready to bear political responsibility, any, no matter what decision is made, if it is analyzed that I am responsible for judicial reforms and failure of vetting,” he said adding that the fight for creating independent judicial power in Armenia with professional judges has not ended yet.

“My fight has not ended no matter in what status it will be,” Badasyan said.