On August 9 an extended board session was held at the RA Investigative Committee with participation of the members of the board of the RA Investigative Committee, heads of functional departments, investigators which was chaired by the Chairman of the RA Investigative Committee Argishti Kyaramyan.

Within the reports presented at the session by the Deputies Chairman of the RA Investigative Committee, Secretary General, issues on effectiveness of the work done at the RA Investigative Committee in 2023, provision of quality of preliminary investigation and issues related to the recorded problems were discussed.

It was stated that the work done during the first term of 2023 has significantly differed in the volume and complexity from that of the previous years, which is due to the fulfillment of the new requirements set forth by the current criminal and criminal procedure codes which have completely changed the course of criminal proceedings.

Particularly, in the mentioned period an unprecedented number of criminal proceedings - 149,673 ones were investigated in the proceeding of the Committee within 56.545 of which active investigation was conducted; it is more by 105.7% or 29.063 as compared to the reported period of the previous year.

This growth is due to certain increase in crime however the main reason is related to the abolition of the inquest institute and the process of preparation of materials as a result of the adoption of the new RA Criminal Procedure Code and a new procedure to conduct the entire pretrial proceedings by investigators. In addition, the circumstance of resuming previously suspended criminal cases, as required by law, has also had a significant impact. With new legal regulations of criminal proceedings starting from July 1, 2022 criminal proceedings are no longer suspended which has led to an unprecedented increase in the number of pending proceedings.

The increase in the number of the proceedings has seriously affected the workload of investigators. In the first term of 2023 the average workload of an investigator, in terms of active proceedings, has made 92 criminal proceedings against 58 of the same period of 2022.

Despite such an increase in workload, investigators have been able to complete 14,331 criminal proceedings which is more by 6.525 or 83.5% as compared to the first term of 2022. Moreover, 3.587 of the mentioned proceedings have been completed with a bill of indictment and on 4.078 persons have been sent to court. The number of the proceedings completed with the bill of indictment has increased by 43.5%, the number of persons – by 42.8%. Besides, the number of the criminal proceedings, the bill of indictment of which has not been confirmed and which have been returned, has decreased by about 37,5% which testifies to the improvement of the quality of preliminary investigation in the conditions of such workload. The fact that, under the conditions of such a workload, no cases of violation of the limited terms of criminal prosecution under the RA new Criminal Procedure Code have been recorded.

During the board session, it was noted with satisfaction that significant results have been achieved in the process of restoring the damage caused to the state, communities, legal entities and citizens by crimes.

Particularly, in the first term of 2023 only within the framework of the criminal proceedings preliminary investigation of which has been completed, damage in the amount of 2 milliard 735 million AMD has been restored which is more by 1 milliard 598 million AMD or 71% as compared to the first term of 2022. Within the criminal proceedings investigated only in General Department of Investigation of Smuggling and Economic Crimes of the RA Investigative Committee 9.662.583.000 AMD has been restored.

While assessing this result positively, the Chairman of the RA Investigative Committee, Argishti Kyaramyan, instructed to establish the main priority of the investigation within all appropriate proceedings taking measures to restore the damages caused to the state, communities and citizens.

In the first term of 2023 17.096 criminal proceedings in total have been investigated in the RA IC General Military Investigative Department and in its subordinate units. Preliminary investigation of 1.337 of them has been completed 352 of which have been completed with the bill of indictment and on 444 persons have been sent to court. 985 criminal proceedings have been terminated 578 of which on rehabilitative, 406 on non rehabilitative and one on other base.

Referring to the criminal proceedings under investigation in the RA IC General Military Investigative Department the Chairman of the RA Investigative Committee noted that significant results have recently been recorded in the process of completing the investigation of criminal proceedings related to the 44-day war. However, there is a need to intensify work in that direction. He instructed to make efforts within the criminal proceedings related to the missing servicemen to receive the results of the expertise commissioned as well as to inform the relatives of those servicemen about the results of the investigation and the circumstances that may be revealed.

At the board session, the problems of prevention of procedural and disciplinary violations by the investigators and responsibility for them have also been addressed. Argishti Kyaramyan underlined that gross violations will continue to receive strict evaluations, which is aimed at ensuring the quality of preliminary investigation.

At the end of the board session a swearing-in ceremony of newly appointed persons holding autonomous positions was held.