Armenian president demands to eliminate shortcomings in law-enforcement

YEREVAN, October 30. /ARKA/. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan had a consultation with law-enforcement agencies on inquest matters Monday and demanded to eliminate the shortcomings, the presidential press service reported. 

The prosecution has exclusive supervision functions which will help solve problems in the process of inquest, the President said.

Sargsyan mentioned the positive changes in prosecution of certain types of crimes. Among good examples of prosecution is progress against money laundering and trafficking, the President said referring to the statements of international organizations. Better cooperation with other law-enforcement agencies is also a success; progress can be recorded in military prosecution as well, the President said. According to him, this proves that there are still many honest prosecutors conscious of their mission.

But the President criticized negative approaches and actions that may be taken by some prosecutors due to negligence or ill will. According to Sargsyan, certain steps were taken to increase the level of inquest, even the guilty were held responsible, but negative phenomena have not reduced at all. 

“The conclusion is that some people have not learnt lessons, as I do not see acute struggle with those phenomena inside the prosecutor’s office”, the President said.

The President informed that the administration checked the citizens’ complaints for a short time period and revealed many facts in inquest practices that leave the common sense behind. 

“It is not enough that the officials holding the inquest, instead of establishing, falsify the facts, they patronize the criminals and hide the crime” the President said. In some cases they even prosecute the others and that is a completely immoral behavior, he added.

The President reminded the cases where prosecutors made crimes themselves, or used arbitrariness to solve their problems, or organized street fights and then tried to avoid prosecution and prosecute another person instead.

Sargsyan stressed the vicious practices adopted in investigation, when, for example, a hundred of people are interviewed for a 15 years’ case with the alleged purpose to fully investigate the case, the President said adding that it would be better if they detected the crimes instead.

The consultation participants received the analysis of criminal inquest problems, made by the presidential administration.

The unbiased analysis shows that criminal inquest is not held in a proper manner, requirements unbiased and full inquiry are not met in investigating grave crimes against individuals, the guilty are not held liable as required by the Criminal Code, instead innocent people are prosecuted or held responsible instead, says the press release. The document points to the officials, who make violations, but are not held adequately liable or go unpunished.

The President gave instructions to certain officials for correcting the situation. Sargsyan stressed he would expect the Prosecutor-General and the Deputy Prosecutors to show their concern and interest in the matter.

“I demand a principled approach. Every one should feel responsible, and the responsibility should be fixed”, the President said. N.V. –0--