May 17, Sevak Aghajanyan chaired a sitting of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs of the Artsakh NA. The President of the National Assembly Artur Tovmasyan participated in the sitting.

The draft law "On Amendments and Additions to the Judicial Code" presented by the President of the Republic of Artsakh as a legislative initiative was discussed.

The draft law provides the possibility of including in the list of candidates for judges of the court of first instance persons who have, during the last ten years, at least five years of work experience as a prosecutor, investigator, lawyer or at least seven years of work experience as a lawyer in state bodies or in local self-government bodies without ensuring the imperative requirement of training in the relevant organization.

The adoption of the project will make it possible to lighten the workload in the first instance court, and also in the event of a vacant position, in the established order, to include in the list of candidates for the judge, a prosecutor, an investigator, a lawyer and a lawyer with the appropriate experience in a state body or a local self-government body, and also to review cases of application imperative requirement of training in the corresponding organization.

Minister of Justice of the Republic of Artsakh Srbuhi Arzumanyan, who presented the bill, said that the draft had passed a preliminary discussion in three court instances.

The deputies expressed their concerns on ensuring the reforms of the judicial system. According to Srbuhi Arzumanyan, the qualification examination of judges remains in force, and the legislative change concerns the provision on the mandatory eight-month training of candidates for judges at the Academy of Justice of the Republic of Armenia.

The Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs unanimously approved the amendment.

Further, the draft law “On Amnesty”, presented by the President of the Republic of Artsakh as a legislative initiative, was discussed.

The draft was presented by Zhirayr Mirzoyan, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Republic of Artsakh President’s Office.

The draft law "On Amnesty" proposes to declare an amnesty for certain categories of persons suspected of committing a crime or who have committed a crime until April 1, 2023 inclusive.

The need to adopt the draft is determined to some extent to alleviate the situation created by continuous aggression of Azerbaijan against the Republic of Artsakh in the post-war period, including the consequences of the humanitarian crisis caused by the blocking of the only road connecting the Republic of Artsakh to the Republic of Armenia.

Zhirayr Mirzoyan informed that in the case of amnesty, the issue of compensation for the damage caused to the victim, confirmed by the legally effective verdict, will be resolved in accordance with the procedure established by the Civil Procedure Code.

The MPs suggested not to extend the amnesty to those who wasted the state budget and caused a particularly large amount of damage to the state.

The committee voted unanimously for the project. The last item on the agenda was the project "On making amendments to the decision ԱԺՈ-011-7 of the National Assembly of May 21, 2020 on creating permanent committees of the National Assembly of the Seventh Convocation". The changes concerned

to the composition of the executive committees operating in the parliament. Artur Mosiyan, one of the members of the committee, did not take part in the voting. With 3 votes in favor, the issue will be presented at the regular sitting of the parliament.