On March 23, 2018 RA Law “On Amendments in RA Criminal Procedure Code” was adopted by the RA National Assembly by which participation of assistant examiner in investigatory actions was limited and additional requirements for application of technical means during conduction of investigatory actions were envisaged.

Considering the significance of the legislative amendments a discussion was held in the RA Investigative Committee during which RA IC Deputy Chairman Artur Ghambaryan presented the peculiarities of legislative amendments related to the institute of assistant examiner in the RA to the inquest and investigative bodies.

Let us mention that participation of the assistant examiner in a number of investigatory actions, including inspection of the site, exhumation, inspection, presenting the body, person or items to recognition, search and confiscation, taking samples, investigatory experimentation, inspection and hearing of recorded tape of telephone conversations, inspection and seizure of correspondence was obligatory.

The number of investigatory actions conducted with participation of assistant examiner has been reduced by the new legislative regulation, participation of assistant examiner is obligatory during investigatory experimentation, presenting the person or items to recognition, search, confiscation, inspection except for the cases provided by law.

A number of investigatory actions will be video audio recorded. Those investigatory actions are presenting the body to recognition, exhumation. Moreover, in the action of presenting the body to recognition a specialist also can participate and exhumation is conducted with participation of a specialist of the sphere of forensic medicine or other specialist if necessary.

Moreover, during video audio recording additional legislative requirements for the application of technical means have been defined. They are

• before the application of technical means the inquest body or investigator examines the devices.

• in case of video audio recording integrity, visibility (involvement, illumination and others) and audibility are provided.

Pursuant to RA Criminal Procedure Code video audio recording shall be conducted from the moment the investigatory actions starts, without interruption, except for cases of unplanned technical malfunction or other objective reasons. Interruption of video audio recording is a base for interrupting the investigatory action and in case the investigatory action is interrupted a separate protocol shall be formed mentioning the reasons of interruption. Conduction of investigatory action continues from the moment the video audio recording restarts.

If the investigative body decided to video audio record the process of conduction of investigatory action on its own initiative or at the request of law it cannot stop the video audio recording for any reason and continue the investigatory action without video audio recording.

Assistant examiner does not participate in the inspection of a document or an item if it has been presented by a natural person or a legal entity.