YEREVAN, JULY 14, NOYAN TAPAN. Sometimes months are not enough for examining such events as those of March 1-2 and haste in this issue sometimes has negative consequences, RA Minister of Justice stated at the July 14 meeting with Thomas Hammarberg, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe. The RA Minister also referred to international experience as a proof of his statement. In his interview to journalists the Minister said that the Commissioner for Human Rights was interested in the RA authorities' response to the amendments to be made to Article 225, Mass Disorders, and 300, Seizure of Power, RA Criminal Code, on which there is also the conclusion of the Venice Commission. The Minister in detail presented the Venice Commission's position emphasizing that the Commission agrees to the most of provisions, and the Armenian authorities are ready to reconsider the provisions, over which there is lack of agreement. Gevorg Danielian assured the Commissioner for Human Rights that the government is going to come up with an initiative of legislative amendments, which in practice will contribute to courts' independence, as well as will limit possible manifestations of corruption risks as far as possible. A number of provisions of PACE Resolution N 1620 were also spoken about at the meeting, in particular, according to one of the provisions, judgements based only on policeman's evidence are considered inadmissible. The RA Minister of Justice said that this position does not correspond to international standards, European court's precedent judicial acts: "If we doubt any policeman's evidence, it is an individual issue and should become a subject of discussion" and if not, no one is authorized to say that one evidence, if it is policeman's testimony, can be considered as a basis. According to the Justice Minister, T. Hammarberg agreed with him mentioning that the Resolution had another idea: it did not mean that it could not be considered absolutely inadmissible, but preference should not have been given to the evidence that is self-confession testimony or evidence of one policeman.

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