The Judicial Acts Compulsory Enforcement Service of the Ministry of Justice of the RA made another illegal decision
17:03, August 25, 2014 | News, Own news | Children's rights, Right to Fair Trial
The very name and mission of justice agencies suggest that they should both protect the Armenian citizens and their rights and legal interests, and keep within the law to make completely independent and impartial decisions.
However, almost every day, one can come across violations of the law or biased approaches by the justice agencies.
A few months ago, we pointed to a violation by the Judicial Acts Compulsory Enforcement Service of the RA MoJ. Then, on October 28, 2013, the Judicial Acts Compulsory Enforcement Service of the RA MoJ decided to start the compulsory enforcement proceedings based on the ruling by the Court of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic dated June 28, 2013. The court ruling prescribed that Daniel Hakobyan, the son of David Hakobyan and Arpi Hovsepyan was to be taken into the care of his mother.
On January 9, 2014, a note was submitted to Hrayr Tovmasyan, Minister of Justice of the RA, and Mihran Poghosyan, Chief Compulsory Enforcement Officer of the RA, demanding to suspend the enforcement proceedings instigated at the Lori Region (Marz) department of the Judicial Acts Compulsory Enforcement Service of the RA MoJ. In response to the note, A. Baghdagulyan, Head of the Lori Region Department of the Judicial Acts Compulsory Enforcement Service stated on January 31 that the enforcement proceedings were delayed until the Court of General jurisdiction of Lori Marz declared its judgment.
While justice seemed to be restored, the officers of the Compulsory Enforcement Service of the RA MoJ further continued their illegal activities for some reasons perhaps known only to them alone.
As already mentioned, the Compulsory Enforcement Service of the RA MoJ should have waited till the Court of General Jurisdiction of Lori Region publishes its ruling. Thus, on April 17, 2014, the Court ruled to give the custody of the child to the mother for 9 months from September to June and to the father for the rest 3 months.
This judgment has not become effective yet and has been even appealed before the RA Court of Appeal which held the first court hearing on July 24.
Now, let us consider the other aspect of the problem.
The Compulsory Enforcement Service of the RA MoJ ignored the decision of the Head of its Lori Region Department on postponing the measures of the Compulsory Enforcement Service till the PUBLICATION OF THE RULING BY THE LORI REGION COURT OF GENERAL JURISDICTION, as well as the ruling of the mentioned court and the fact that the case in question was under consideration at the RA Court of Appeals and required by a note that David Hakobyan took the child to the Yerevan administrative office of the Compulsory Enforcement Service of the RA MoJ on July 24, 2014.
Interestingly enough, the dates of the hearing at the Court of Appeal and of the summon to the Compulsory Enforcement Service coincided.
Actually, the Compulsory Enforcement Service of the RA MoJ had previously postponed its measures only formally, and now restarted its activities by ignoring the recent ruling despite claiming in the note that it had studied the materials of the case. Hence, the Compulsory Enforcement Service appears to show a biased approach by following the ruling of the Court of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
Hence, the Compulsory Enforcement Service of the RA MoJ decided to go back and enact the ruling of the Court of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. It should be also noticed that even if the Compulsory Enforcement Service decided to enact the ruling of the Lori Region Court of General Jurisdiction, accordingly the child should still remain under the custody of his/her father in this period of time.
The HCA Vanadzor submitted another similar application to stop the violation of the law to Mihran Poghosyan, Chief Compulsory Enforcement Officer of the RA, and Hovhannes Manukyan, Minister of Justice of the RA. The application particularly demands that the enforcement proceedings № 06-3489/13 by the Lori Region Department of the Judicial Acts Compulsory Enforcement Service should be suspended until the Civil Court of Appeals makes its final ruling.
We hereby hope that in this case the justice agencies, namely the Ministry of Justice and the Compulsory Enforcement Service of the RA MoJ, will firstly make a fair decision and not evade their own decision in the future.