Solemn session of the RA Investigative Committee dedicated to the Day of the Employee of the Investigative Committee and the third anniversary of its formation was held today. The RA President was present at the session.

Besides the members of the board of the Investigative Committee the heads of territorial and structural subdivisions of the committee also participated in the session.

The RA President congratulated the employees of the Investigative Committee on professional holiday, wished stability and success in their very responsible and at the same time interesting work expressing confidence that the employees of the Investigative Committee fully realize the significance of their mission.

The RA President emphasized the protection of the person, society and state interests, the importance of raising them to a qualitatively new level. “Only a few months ago I had an opportunity to present some of my ideas about law enforcement system. In the speech I had in Prosecutor’s Office I appealed the law enforcement bodies to raise the protection of a person, society and state interests to a qualitatively new level. I also emphasized that Prosecutor’s Office with its specific status was one of the supporting columns of that system. I am confident that the next supporting column is the investigative bodies which are not less specific. It is not accidental that certain statements on functions of investigative bodies were fixed for the first time by the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia. I think that the guarantee of success of the activity of the investigative body is the investigator who has a procedural independence with all legal obligations derived from that status. Independence is a very important guarantee not only for the investigator but also for those who find themselves under the influence of the proceeding conducted by him, said the RA President and mentioned, some years ago when we began discussions on formation of a united investigative body, raising of investigator’s independence was viewed as one of its aims. I think creating a united investigative committee we managed to take an additional efficient step for realization of that idea. Moreover, the constitutional regulation according to which the investigatory bodies not only carry out the pretrial proceeding but also organize it proves the guaranteed rise of independence of investigative bodies. Naturally, such function increases the load of responsibility of investigative bodies. It is especially expressed in fight against crime and in strengthening the rule of law”.    

According to the President the investigative bodies are the driving force of the pretrial proceeding and the role of the Investigative Committee is one of the primaries. “Only three years have passed since the day when the Investigative Committee was created. We can already state that we have an accomplished and successful united investigative body. This body is able to solve all the problems it faces in a best way. I want to be confident that the successes of the structure will be visible in future as well in conditions of the new way of state government”,-said the RA President Serzh Sargsyan.  

During the solemn session the Chairman of the Investigative Committee Aghvan Hovsepyan presented in his speech the investigators’ independence during the pretrial proceeding, the steps taken to raise the efficiency of investigation, and mentioned that the positive results are already seen.

“One of the most important indices of efficiency of preliminary investigation is procedural completion of criminal cases. The productivity of the RA Investigative Committee, pursuant to the completed cases, was 30% for the first term of 2015, 34% for the same period of 2016, 36% for the first term of 2017 and sustainable increase is detected. The number of criminal cases sent to court with the bill of indictment has also increased.

In the result of measures taken the number of transferred criminal cases has decreased. 3268 criminal cases have been transferred from 2015 to 2016 and 2566 criminal cases have been transferred from 2016 to 2017, that is less by 702 cases”, said the RA IC Chairman and emphasized that the number of suspended criminal cases is not recorded any more among criteria for determination of productivity of the RA Investigative Committee.

“To suspend the proceeding of criminal cases means either not to reveal the person having committed the crime or not to find his location. Suspension of the proceeding of the criminal case is not a positive phenomenon itself, thus it cannot be viewed as a positive index of productivity of investigatory work”, stated A. Hovsepyan.

The IC Chairman stated that providing the comprehensiveness and objectiveness of preliminary investigation is one of the challenges of the Investigative Committee.

“The idea that the investigator is a body carrying out an accusatory function, a body of criminal prosecution has been consolidated since the Soviet times. The destructive idea of Prosecutor General of the Soviet state A. Vishinski pursuant to which the investigator is a prosecutor’s assistant (1924) has been keeping its influence up today. Accusatory direction of the preliminary investigation directly contributes to formation of accusatory justice. It is known that the absolute majority of evidence of justice of criminal cases is formed by the investigator thus in case the investigator has accusatory inclination the results of his actions will also be accusatory. The preliminary investigation and trial with accusatory inclination put the legal state bases in danger.

The idea that the investigator is not a persecutor but an examiner has already been formed in the basis of legal thinking of the investigators of the RA Investigative Committee. The sacred duty of the investigator is to conduct comprehensive investigation, to find not only accusatory but also exculpatory evidence», stated Aghvan Hovsepyan mentioning that by the investigator's decision the number of terminated criminal cases on exculpatory basis has increased in 2016 by 173 as compared with 2015.

Another important issue is the reduction of terms of pretrial proceeding. In the result of active measures the number of criminal cases which have been completed in two months' term has significantly increased and at the same time the number of criminal cases which have been investigated for more than a year has been reduced. In the first term of 2017 51% of criminal cases that is more than the half has been investigated within the planned two months' term. Reduction is also detected in the criminal cases investigated in longer terms. The number of the cases investigated for more than a year is only 2.0% in the first term of 2017. Despite the achievements, as the IC Chairman mentioned, the issue of terms of conduction of forensic examinations at the stage of preliminary investigation is actual and requires a complex solution.  

The efficiency of the activity of preliminary investigation bodies essentially depends on the cooperation with operative-intelligence bodies.

At the beginning of formation of a united investigative body in the Republic of Armenia there were fears that in case of institutional separation of preliminary investigation and inquest bodies the efficiency of cooperation between them would decrease taking especially the unsuccessful experience of Kazakhstan into consideration. However, the observations of the criminal cases evidently show another development; currently the intensity of cooperation between preliminary investigation and inquest bodies has significantly increased, realizing its functions in the law enforcement system each of them strives to carry out its duties as conscientiously as possible. At this point the departmental competition has exclusively positive results», stated A. Hovsepyan.

The IC Chairman emphasized that each action of investigator is regulated by law. Even trivial deviations from criminal procedure way can cause legal liability.

“All this proves first and foremost that the investigator shall have a high sense of responsibility for his own work and functions and strictly maintain the requirements of the laws regulating his functions”, said IC Chairman mentioning that during the last three years the working conditions of investigative divisions have significantly been improved, more favorable atmosphere and conditions have been created to conduct investigatory actions in the presence of participants of trial during pretrial proceeding and work carried out in that direction will continue.

On the occasion of professional holiday the RA President awarded a group of employees of Investigative Committee with high state rewards for conscientious and efficient work, as well as for contribution made in strengthening the legal order and legality; Deputy Chairman of the RA Investigative Committee Artur Ghambaryan, head of the Third Garrison Investigative Unit of the RA IC General Military Investigative Department Arman Seyranyan were awarded medal “Mkhitar Gosh”, deputy head of Aragatsotn Regional Investigative Department Gagik Arakelyan was awarded a medal “Gratitude”, senior investigator of Kotayq Regional Investigative Department Davit Tovmasyan was awarded a letter of appreciation of the RA President.  

A few dozen of other employees of the RA Investigative Committee have received other high state and departmental rewards.