During a consultation regarding preliminary investigation of criminal cases in the Attorney General’s Office with the participation of representatives of law-enforcements bodies, President Serzh Sargsyan talked about concrete issues, which exist in the attorney system. The President put forward some facts during the consultation, which testify to the drawbacks in the above-mentioned system. Then he stated, “And these are only some of the cases revealed. Can anyone explain to me how such an atmosphere can exist in a law-enforcement body, in the first place? So this means that some people have become impudent. If a regional attorney’s deputy thinks that he can do such a thing, I cannot think otherwise.” During a conversation with a set of human rights advocates, www.aravot.am tried to find out whether clear intention had been noticed during that consultation in terms of solving problems or it had been done just for the election. Vardan Harutyunyan, the director of the Center for Freedom and Rights, noted, “This is a step taken just for the presidential election. Serzh Sargsyan wants to create an image of his struggling against illegality, corruption, abuse of power alone like Don Quixote. Certainly, one shouldn’t believe this. The assessments that
were made were also important. At the end of the day, he holds the office of the President of the Republic of Armenia and his assessments of the attorney system are important. The Attorney General’s Office was given carte blanche for his coming to power. The whole legal system, law-enforcement bodies had the right to do anything, they just had to serve reproduction and establishment of Serzh Sargsyan’s rule. Let us remember political trials, persecution of people by the prosecution bodies and law-enforcement bodies. He mows what he sowed. He allowed them to abuse power, engage in illegal actions and he tries to make an impression that something is fixed. It can only be called another bluff, which will not be successful. They may fire and try one or two of those who are the most vulnerable, but corruption in the system will not be eliminated, the system will not change, since all that is led by the President of the Republic of Armenia.”
Human rights advocate Artak Zeynalyan gave the following assessment, “The problems, which he talks about, are a small part of really existing problems. Counselors dealing with criminal cases and legal successors of aggrieved persons in every case have been shouting about that from the rooftops for the past 20 years or at least the past decade. I accept that the issues raised during that consultation exist, but I would very much like it to have a result and something to be changed. However, the hero of that consultation was not the person who had violated the law. It was very abstract. If the court didn’t convince me, it may fail to convince the President too, since he is an onlooker too. Whereas one of the most important functions of the court is that the ruling is convincing.”
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Talking about the consultation held by the President of the Republic of Armenia again, Mr. Zeynalyan noted, “There were no victims of March 1, Vahan Khalafyan, Ghulyan, there were no specific people whose rights had been violated. I would like to believe that this consultation will have some effect. However, I didn’t see there the interests of the victim whose rights had been violated. It wasn’t noticeable that there was no corpus delicti in the Vartan Oskanian case, and if one of four elements of the crime is not there, there is no crime.”
In conclusion, A. Zeynalyan said, “The consultation may be perceived as expression of good wishes, some pre-election step.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
