On January 31, 2022 extended board session headed by the Chairman of the RA Investigative Committee Argishti Kyaramyan was held at the Investigative Committee.

Before referring to the agenda issues, Argishti Kyaramyan introduced Vigen Mesropyan who had assumed the position of the Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Committee by the RA Prime Minister’s relevant decision, thanked him for successful activity he had performed in the position of the Head of General Department of Control over Activity of Territorial Investigative Departments expressing confidence that V. Mesropyan wiould carry out his new service functions with utmost responsibility and noticeable efficiency, as well.

Then within the framework of the agenda issues the Deputies Chairman presented the indices recorded during 2021 in the areas of their coordination and referred to the details of organization of processes planned for the current year.

Referring to the statistics of the previous year the Deputy Chairman of the RA Investigative Committee V. Mesropyan mentioned that with double counting during the previous year 32544 criminal cases have been investigated in the proceeding of the territorial investigative departments and divisions of the Investigative Committee (26450 cases in 2020) or 6094 more cases than in 2020 (the growth is 23%). 19165 or 59% of 32544 criminal cases investigated in 2021 have been investigated in the proceeding of the investigative bodies of Yerevan Investigative Department (15258 cases in 2020, the growth is 25.6%), and 13379 criminal cases or 41% - in the proceeding of territorial investigative departments (11192 cases in 2020, the growth is 19.5%).

Pursuant to the statistics declared by the Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Committee, on the whole, 77.7% of the criminal cases investigated in the proceeding of the RA Investigative Committee has been investigated in the proceeding of territorial subdivisions.

Taking into consideration that starting from July 1, 2022 RA new Criminal Code and RA new Criminal Procedure Code will enter into force through which fundamental, principal changes are envisaged in the qualification of crimes and at the area of implementation of pretrial proceeding the IC Deputy Chairman V. Mesropyan proposed to organize professional trainings for the investigators holding autonomous positions in the RA Investigative Committee.

In the framework of the next report the Deputy Chairman of the RA Investigative Committee, the Head of General Department of Investigation of Particularly Important Cases A. Melikyan presented that 26.6% growth of criminal cases has been recorded during the previous year in the general department which is mainly conditioned with growth of cases on cybercrimes and crimes committed at the area of high technologies, corruption-related and economic-related crimes, as well as cases on sale of drugs by using high technology.

In his speech the Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Committee also referred to the completed cases and the ones on crimes committed by people known to the public. 

According to A. Melikyan, in 2021 the number of cases suspended according to the Point 1 of the Part 1 of the Article 31 of RA Criminal Procedure Code has decreased by 65 or 45.8 %. Besides, the number of cases combined in one proceeding has increased by 134 or74.4 %, the number of cases sent to court has increased by 11 or 17.2 % which proves that the crimes have been disclosed, combined to other cases and preliminary investigation has been completed.

Within the framework of the agenda issues of the extended board session the IC Deputy Chairman, the Head of General Military Investigative Department A. Krkyasharyan also detailed some key indices of the previous year.

According to A. Krkyasharyan, 8369 criminal cases or nearly 19.9 % of criminal cases investigated in the proceeding of the Investigative Committee have been investigated in the previous year in the proceeding of subdivisions subject to General Military Investigative Department of the RA Investigative Committee 2456 of which have been from 2020. As compared with 2020, the number of criminal cases investigated in the proceeding has increased by 3018 or 56.4 %. Preliminary investigation of 3420 criminal cases or 40.9 % investigated in the reporting period was completed (1790 or 33.4 % - in 2020), the productivity has increased by 7.5%.

Within criminal cases which have been completed in the subdivisions of the RA IC General Military Investigative Department 394 people have been involved as a defendant, 50 of them have been officers, 2 – sub-officers, 89 – contractors, 199 – conscripts (servicemen of compulsory military service), 9 – reserve soldiers, 45 – civilians.

Deputy Chairman of the RA Investigative Committee Arsen Ayvazyan presented that during 2021 necessary measures have been taken by the Legal Department of the Investigative Committee to improve legal bases ensuring the activities of the structure, normative legal acts, to work out internal legal acts of the IC Chairman and Deputies Chairman, to provide opinions on legal acts drafts received from other structures or other subdivisions, to make claim applications or their responses, to provide the judicial representation. Particularly, significant work has been done to improve the activity of the Qualification Commission of the Investigative Committee, to conduct examinations to complete the list of candidates of the people holding autonomous position in the system, to conduct certification of the people holding autonomous position and to form categories of their service promotion list, as well as to improve the rewarding process of those holding autonomous position in the Investigative Committee, civil servants, people holding discretionary positions, those working under employment contract and maintenance personnel.

During the reported period 12 draft laws, 8 draft decisions of the RA Government and Prime Minister have been worked out a part of which has been adopted and some drafts are still under consideration.

According to the information provided by A. Ayvazyan, in 2021 321 queries received from competent bodies of foreign countries have been considered by the Division of Provision of International Queries.

According to the Deputy Chairman, 19 motions of the Chairman of the Investigative Committee on 26 people have been investigated by the IC Disciplinary Commission.

Within the framework of the last agenda issue the Head of General Department on Special Assignments, Organizational-analytical Activity and Criminalistics of the Investigative Committee Kamo Sahakyan presented that in general, in 2021 41883 criminal cases have been investigated in the proceeding of the Investigative Committee (32483 criminal cases – the previous year) – the growth is 28.9%, 6293 materials have been prepared (4992 materials – the previous year). In 2021 36025 criminal cases have been proceeded as compared with 25045 in 2020 and in this case the growth is 43.8%. The balance of the criminal cases at the end of the year was 5858 criminal cases as compared with 7438 cases in the previous year that is 1580 fewer and it becomes noticeable that in the conditions of growth of the proceedings more criminal cases have been solved. Moreover, it is remarkable that in 2021 the amount of the solved cases has exceeded the whole proceeding of the RA Investigative Committee in 2020 with 3542 cases and in 2019 – with 3065 cases which proves the efficient work of the Investigative Committee. On the whole 4729 criminal cases have been sent to court which is by 31.3% more than the indices of 2020. Pursuant to statistics, the productivity is 86% as compared with 77 % of the previous year and the average overload of one investigator is 83.4 criminal cases as compared with 69.1 of the previous year.

Summing up the work of the board session, the Chairman of the RA Investigative Committee A. Kyaramyan thanked all the employees of the system for providing remarkably positive indices in 2021 and emphasized that the employees of the Investigative Committee have done their best to provide the comprehensive activity of the structure. With all that A. Kyaramyan assigned to take necessary measures to implement all the programs and initiatives properly based on priorities for continuous increase of efficiency of the activity of the Investigative Committee.

At the end of the extended board session a solemn ceremony of handing over rewards “The Subdivision of the Year” and “The Investigator of the Year”, as well as other service encouragements has been organized.