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The current Armenian authorities seek to make courts and judges their “puppets” through a bill that would give more powers to the Supreme Judicial Council, Artsvik Minasyan, a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF, Dashnaktsutyun) Supreme Council of Armenia, told reporters on Friday.

The parliament earlier adopted in the first reading the bill calling for changes to the Criminal Code of Armenia in a vote of 80 to 6. The draft amendments have been submitted by the ruling My Step faction.

“This bill is yet another encroachment on the judiciary by the political authorities,” Minasyan said, adding the authorities aim to put pressure on judges who refuse to fulfill their wishes.

“As a body guaranteeing the independence of judges and courts, the Supreme Judicial Council would be allowed to initiate proceedings independently to subject judges to disciplinary liability. This is nothing more than an attempt to make the courts and judges fulfill the wishes of some. The biggest risk is that our judges will have to constantly hire lawyers to protect their rights instead of administering justice,” the ARF member said.

Artsvik Minasyan noted that as soon as judges try to act independently, the law enforcement agencies are instructed to "attack" them and their family members.

"And finally, the authorities are trying to make courts and judges their puppets. This is what Nikol Pashinyan's cabinet and his political team are striving for,” he said, deploring the debates on the “unconstitutional” bill amid the ongoing crisis in the country and calling for efforts to put an end to it.