The Chairman of RA Investigative Committee Aghvan Hovsepyan today received the US Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Armenia Richard Mills. The parties discussed a number of issues of mutual interest.

The Chairman of RA Investigative Committee presented the works implemented for the formation of the newly-formed state body, the achievements and problems of the past 9 months. A. Hovsepyan, referring to the developed legislative mechanisms, highlighted the independence of the investigative body, the provision of actual independence of the investigator while investigating the certain criminal case.

Speaking of the issues of priority the Chairman of the Investigative Committee emphasized the works being implemented in the direction of increasing the efficiency and the quality of preliminary investigation highlighting the training of the investigators, the necessity of operative exchange of information between the law enforcement bodies. The parties referred to digitization of criminal cases, the joint programs to provide the availability of information databases. A. Hovsepyan mentioned that the digitization program currently being experimented in two administrative districts with the support of US Embassy in Armenia will be introduced in all investigative subdivisions of the Investigative Committee in 2016. As a result, the parties will receive the criminal cases through memory cards in the order defined by Criminal Procedure Code which will contribute to the reduction of corruption risks, as well as will save the financial resources.

The parties particularly stated the importance of domestic combat against transnational crimes, as well as the cooperation between the law enforcement bodies of different countries. They assessed highly the experience of cooperation between the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation in spite of short activity of the Investigative Committee.

A. Hovsepyan thanked the American partners for responding to the inquiry on providing legal aid in the framework of the criminal case investigated in RA Investigative Committee initiated on swindling state funds in particularly large amount and conducting necessary investigatory actions in the USA, as well as for sending the obtained evidence in spite of the fact that there was not any legislative mechanism on providing legal act to each other in certain criminal cases.

“In the result of this cooperation we managed to provide the comprehensiveness of the investigation and to ground the allegation of swindling millions of drams in Armenia. This precedent of cooperation is a signal to the fact that the hands of justice are long and those who abuse it cannot avoid responsibility regardless of the country they started and finished the crime”, said the Chairman of the Investigative Committee Aghvan Hovsepyan.

“During today’s meeting, we discussed ways that the U.S. Embassy and the Investigative Committee can cooperate to promote rule of law, transparency, and accountability, as well as mechanisms to combat corruption and domestic violence.   Given the large heroin and methamphetamine seizures we’ve seen in the past 18 months, we also took advantage of the opportunity to discuss how we can work more closely together to disrupt and dismantle international drug trafficking and money laundering organizations.”

The parties assessed the formed cooperation and its results positively and arranged to continue the cooperation outlining new ways of cooperation.