The Prosecutor General’s Office has developed and submitted to the RA Ministry of Justice a draft of amendments to the CPC, the final adoption of which would allow, in case of necessity, to interrogate witnesses or experts via video call. At the stage of judicial investigation, situations often arise when participants of investigative actions are outside of the republic, which objectively hinders the implementation of the proceedings in due time and does not allow the acquisition of evidences which are relevant to the case.

 

The need for legislative changes is conditioned by the indicators of consideration of practical issues arising during the pre-trial proceedings, and often it is not possible to carry out the necessary investigative actions by the case under consideration, because of the impossibility of the participants of these investigative actions to come to the body conducting the proceedings. Such situations lead to unreasonable delays and don’t give a chance to the body conducting the proceedings to obtain evidences /relevant to the case/ through appropriate investigative actions, by making impossible to properly carry out criminal procedural tasks.

 

In addition to that, current legal regulations of the CPC of the Republic of Armenia do not provide the possibility of interrogation of witnesses or experts by video call at the trial stage.

 

Interrogation of witnesses via video call is not new in international practice. This mechanism is especially applicable in the provision of mutual legal assistance in criminal matters between EU member states, when one state may turn to another state with a request to notify the citizen of that country and send him it to the competent authority for interrogation.

 

The practice of interrogation via video call will be applied in exceptional cases when it is impossible to ensure the physical presence of a witness in a trial after taking all measures. This legal regulation will contribute to the preservation of material resources, as well as ensuring the full realization of the Convention rights of the person involved as an accused.