By the initiative of the Chairman of the RA Investigative Committee Hayk Grigoryan working discussion was held in the Investigative Committee to make the investigation of criminal cases conducted on thefts committed in companies operating in major trade centers in Yerevan more efficient, as well as to prevent them.

Officials from the RA Police, RA National Security Service, RA Prosecutor General’s Office, the Staff of Human Rights Defender took part in the meeting. MP from the faction “Bright Armenia” of the RA National Assembly Harutyun Babayan and representatives of a number of companies operating in “Dalma Garden Mall” and “Yerevan Mall” trade centers were also present at the meeting.

The Deputy Chairman of the RA Investigative Committee, Head of General Department of Investigation of Particularly Important Cases Artur Melikyan presented information about the studies of criminal cases investigated in subdivisions of the Investigative Committee on thefts and theft attempts committed from the halls of a number of companies operating in “Dalma Garden Mall” and “Yerevan Mall” trade centers.

In the result of studies and visits to trade centers paid by the instruction of the RA IC Chairman it was found out that the criminals were caught, as a rule, in case the alarm devices fastened to crime items were on; when related to the alarm the security officers approached the criminal and the case was recorded with the help of video surveillance devices. It is only in 7 cases that the security officer noticed the moment of theft and caught the criminal.

Detention was chosen as a pretrial measure against 11 persons having committed theft in trade centers and brought to liability, pretrial measures not related to detention were chosen against the rest 348 ones; that is detention was not used in case of 96.9%.

71 of 359 persons having committed theft are residents of provinces, 288 are residents of several administrative districts of Yerevan served by relevant subdivisions of the Police.

In the result of thefts committed in trade centers pecuniary damage of 22.600.000 AMD was caused to business companies 15.500.000 AMD of which was recovered.

No ban was imposed on the defendants' property for recovery of the damage as there was not any.

During the meeting it was decided that the police should study and inform how many forces are needed to concentrate in the malls in order to prevent thefts committed there. For the purpose of regulating the available problems other departments are going to submit their proposals to the Investigative Committee within a week.

We remind that the representatives of «Dalma Invest» and «Yerevan Mall» LLC-s as well as representatives of a number of companies operating in «Dalma Garden Mall» and «Yerevan Mall» trade centers had formerly applied to the Chairman of the RA Investigative Committee Hayk Grigoryan with request to take necessary measures to apply more stringent procedural measures against habitual offenders having committed theft in the companies. A letter of similar content had been sent to the Investigative Committee by MP from the faction “Bright Armenia” of the RA National Assembly Harutyun Babayan, as well.