Pursuant to the Constitutional law “On the rules of procedure of the National Assembly”, Anna Vardapetyan, Prosecutor General, submitted for the discussion of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs the report consisting of 11 main sections on the activity of the Prosecutor’s office during 2022.

          In particular, they refered to

• Structure of crime,  its dynamics and fight against the crime;
• Fight against the corruption;
• Confiscation of illicit property;                                       
• Protection of state interests;
• Investigation of military crimes;
• Oversight over the lawfulness of pre-trial criminal proceedings;
• Pursuing a charge and appealing the judicial acts;  
• Oversight over the lawfulness of application of punishments and other coercive measures;
• Delays of investigation of criminal cases (“belated justice”);
• International legal cooperation
• Reception of citizens, applications and public relations.

We should mention that based on article 128, part 1 of the Constitutional law “On rules of procedure of the National Assembly” the report on the activity of the Prosecutor’s office during 2022 was submitted to the National Assembly within the specified period, on March 31, 2023 and its soft copy is available on the official webpage of the Prosecutor’s Office.

The Prosecutor General addressed several fields, which are prioritized by the Prosecutor Office, among them—fight against corruption, protection of state interests, confiscation of illicit property, delays of investigation of criminal cases (“belated justice”), and afterwards answered the questions.

The Prosecutor General particularly mentioned that.

 “1858 cases of corruption crimes were recorded in the Republic of Armenia during 2022 compared with 1924 cases during 2021. Compared with 2021 the number of crime cases reduced in 66 or 3.4%. The reduction is mainly conditioned by giving bribe (33 cases during 2021, 15 cases during 2022) and taking bribe (34 cases during 2021, 18 cases during 2022).

During 2022, increase of the number of the following cases was recorded—bribery (108 cases during 2021, 157 cases during 2022), money laundering (49 cases during 2021, 65 cases during 2022), abuse of official powers (757 cases during 2021, 794 cases during 2022).

Analysis of the statistical data of 2021 and 2022 stated a small decrease in the number of corruption crimes. However, increase of the number of corruption crimes was recorded during the period of 2018-2020, which is conditioned by the fact that reports on the corruption crimes committed before 2018 were mainly received during 2018-2019. The indicator of 2022 exceeds the indicator of 2021 by 96, which is conditioned by the regulations of the new Criminal Procedure Code which have entered into force since July 1, 2022. The procedure of preparation of materials on the crime reports is not defined by the new Code.

During 2022 the total property damage caused as a result of corruption crimes, criminal cases and criminal prosecution amounted to AMD 2 221 849 983 (AMD 4 548 233 348 during 2021) AMD 873 265 480 wherefrom was compensated (AMD 400 051 030).

AMD 43 690 130 from the total compensated amount (AMD 873 265 480) was the compensation of the damage caused to the state and AMD 808 888 807—the amount of the damage caused to the communities.

99 corruption crimes were examined and completed in the courts during 2022 (83 in 2021) against 197 individuals (150 in 2021). The total damage caused under those criminal cases amounted to AMD 228 294 243 (AMD 551 044 294 in 2021), where AMD 217 751 457 was compensated (AMD 43 712 747 in 2021). AMD 210 703 347 from the amount mentioned above was the damage caused to the state and AMD 17 590 896—the damage caused to the communities.

AMD 200 160 557 from the total amount of the damage (AMD 210 703 347) was compensated.

63 officials were sued for committing a corruption crime under the criminal proceedings examined in the Anti-corruption committee during 2022.

 212 studies were carried out in the field of the state interests during 2022 (885 in 2021), 428 cases of violations were detected (379 in 2021).

AMD 11 106 000 was actually compensated under the claims awarded during the accounting and previous periods.

91 claims were filed with the court during 2022 with the requirement of confiscation of AMD 27 124 116 (74 claims, the requirement of confiscation amounted to AMD 624 461 000).

Pursuant to the results of the studies carried out in the scope of the state interests’ protection function of the subdivisions of the Prosecutor’s Office 14 criminal cases (proceedings) were initiated (99 in 2021).

Pursuant to the results of studies carried out in different sectors of public administration during 2022 property damages in extremely large amounts caused to the state and communities due to the violation of state interests were recorded in several cases.

 The Department for Confiscation of Property of Illicit Origin of the Prosecutor General’s Office received materials of 50 criminal cases (55 in 2021) and 25 materials on the data received due to the results of operational intelligence measures on the property of illicit origin belonging to 84 individuals (23 materials on 105 individuals during 2021).

During 2022, 77 decisions on initiating an examination were rendered based on the verification of grounds for initiating an examination (65 decision in 2021) 9 of which were initiated based on the materials transferred from 2021.  18 decisions on not initiating examinations were rendered (21 decisions in 2021).  109 preliminary summaries were drawn up on the results of the examinations during 2022. Under 51 examinations presumed properties of illicit origin exceeding AMD 50 000 000 were detected—65 movable properties, 460 immovable properties, 100 participations in legal persons and more than AMD 92 000 000 000.

In the scope of 43 studies carried out during 2022, 52 applications on applying a preliminary measure for securing the claim were submitted to the court, which were awarded by the court and the decisions were submitted for compulsory execution.  An attachment was imposed on 600 properties.

During 2022, 11 statements of claim on the confiscation of illicit property were submitted to the First Instance Court of General Jurisdiction of the city of Yerevan and another 10 statements of claim to the Anti-corruption court—all the statements of claim were accepted into the proceedings. Under the mentioned 21 statements of claim confiscation about 200 immovable and 45 movable properties and participation in 45 legal persons in favor of the state was requested.  The amount to be confiscated amounted to AMD 51 360 000 000. The total cost of statements of claim filed during 2022 amounted to about AMD 100 000 000 000.

One of the key problems in the field of criminal justice continuous to be delay of examination of the cases. Moreover, both the preliminary examination terms and court examination terms are problematic.

The delay of the term of investigation of cases shall have the following results: 

• Decrease in the efficiency of justice process
• Investigators, prosecutors and judges shall have backlog of cases
• Violation of the rights of trial participants.                                                 
• The delay of the term of investigation of criminal cases shall also result in the violation of the immediate examination requirement—one of the elements of effective examination of death cases, that is the procedural component of the right to life guaranteed by Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Expiry of the statute of limitations of subjecting to criminal liability and in such situation the public expectations of the justice of punishment and restoration of social justice may not be realized. 244 criminal cases (proceedings) were dismissed based on the fact of expiry of the statute of limitations in 2022. At the same time the criminal prosecution against 343 individuals was terminated in 2022 based on the fact of expiry of the statute of limitations of subjecting to criminal liability.

The preliminary examination of 13.1% of the criminal cases examined during 2022 lasted more than 3 months, moreover 4.5% —more than 1 year.

An assignment was addressed to all the departments of the Prosecutors’ Office with this regard, to exclude the cases of invalid absence from court session. Absence from the court session conditioned by the  urgent or unforeseen circumstances shall be notified to the Deputy Prosecutor in the written form  and also ensure that each case of absence for a valid reason shall be notified in the written form to the Staff of the relevant court and the Deputy of the Prosecutor General coordinating the relevant sector. 

A letter was addressed to the Chairperson of the Supreme Judicial Council suggesting them to find out the reasons of delay of the court cases as well as to undertake measures to ensure the reasonable term of examination of the criminal cases in the scope of the powers reserved on the Council.    

Examples were brought in the annual report of the Prosecutor’s Office stating the concerns on the belated justice.

In the scope of revelation of reasons resulting in belated justice an assignment was addressed to all the subdivisions of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Armenia under which the terms and procedure of delay of criminal cases examination for more than 6 or 8 months were defined during the operative consultations held by the Deputy Prosecutor General, coordinating relevant fields, and the relevant subdivisions of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Armenia. 

The process of summarizing the results of the assignment has begun, which will regularly be conducted. Particularly the results of studies carried out after receiving the assignment were reported on April 1, pursuant whereof as of March 1, 2023, 5202 cases examined in subdivisions of the Investigative Committee  has been under the examination for more than 8 months. From February 6— the date of the assignment until April 1, the summarization date Deputy Prosecutors and departments have examined around 1200 cases (proceedings) and an assignment on completion of the majority of cases were given to the prosecutors.

 The issue of the term of examination of cases shall be in the center of attention of Prosecutor’s Office”.