YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 5, NOYAN TAPAN. The working group, which was set up to develop a bill on making amendments and additions to Articles 225 (Mass Disorder) and 300 (Usurpation of State Power) of the RA Criminal Code, held its first sitting on February 5. According to the group's head, chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on State and Legal Issues, head of the Armenian delegation in the PACE David Harutyunian, the envisaged amendments to the indicated articles of the Criminal Code pursue two goals: to reflect the principle of legal certainty in these articles and to bring them into line with European standards. Commenting on these two articles, he said that their legal wording is not good: in particular Article 300 contains the phrase "actions aimed at overthrowing the constitutional order of the Republic of Armenia by violence". In the opinion of D. Harutyunian, first of all, it is necessary to define what the "constitutional order" is, as the wording of the article gives cause for extensive comments. As regards Article 225 about mass disorder, he mentioned that the article does not say what can be considered as mass disorder. Following the sitting, D. Harutyunian told reporters that the group had planned its future work. Besides, the group members presented their analyses on the two articles. D. Harutyunian expressed a hope that the group will have some written material for discission at the sitting to be held next week. He did not rule out that in case of necessity the group will invite local experts, as well as European ones - in the period between the adoption in first reading and the second reading. In his opinion, if the work proceeds as planned, in all likelihood, during the four-day sessions of the NA to start on February 23, the bill on amendments and additions to two articles of the Criminal Code will be presented for discussion in first reading.

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