An expanded board meeting was held at the RA Prosecutor General's Office, which was chaired by the RA Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan. The Acting Prosecutor General of the Republic of Artsakh Aramayis Avagyan also participated in the board meeting. The results of the work of the RA Prosecutor's Office for 2019, the activities of the criminal prosecution bodies in the fight against crime, and the implementation of prosecutorial functions were discussed and summarized.

 

The Deputy Prosecutor General by types of crimes presented the general state and trends of crime recorded during the previous year, factors affecting the work carried out to prevent, counter, detect crimes, and eliminate the causes that contribute to the crime.

 

In 2019, 26.850 cases of crime were registered in the republic, which is by 8.8% more than the previous year. The increase of cases occurred mainly due to the growth of crimes of medium and high gravity, which amounted to 27.8% and 16.7%, respectively. A significant decrease was recorded regarding the facts of crimes against human being, under the conditions of which, however, compared with 2018, murder cases were increased by 34.3%. Cases of attempted murder and infliction of intentional grievous bodily harm, fraud were also increased in a certain way.

 

Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan, referring to trends in the dynamics of crime, found them very alarming, noting that a comprehensive analysis of contributing traditional factors suggests that particular attention should be paid to certain omissions in the work of all criminal prosecution bodies. The Prosecutor General instructed the heads of the territorial subdivisions of the Prosecutor's Office to immediately begin, in particular, in-depth and comprehensive analysis of these types of crimes. Further omissions in this matter, the negligent and indifferent behavior, regardless of where it will be expressed, should be assessed strictly.

 

Serious results continue to be recorded, especially in the fight against corruption. In general, the initiation of the criminal cases on corruption facts was increased  by 4.7%, and the number of corruption criminal cases investigated by competent authorities was increased by 26.6%. However, in this field, the main qualitative positive dynamics was noted in the field of criminal prosecution. In particular, compared to 2018, corruption cases sent to the court were increased by 59%. The damage caused to the state only by materials with completed proceedings and criminal cases is about 12 times higher than the result of 2018, and the damage recovered by these cases is 2.5 times more than the previous year (More details will be published shortly).

 

During the board meeting, they considered essential the effectiveness of the activity of the RA Prosecutor's Office especially in the field of protecting state property interests. During 2019 in the course of the studies carried out by all structural subdivisions of the Prosecutor's Office within the framework of the function of protecting state interests in various fields, 939 offenses were detected, 228 criminal cases were initiated, and the results of studies by 338 cases were sent according to jurisdiction to prepare materials. The measures taken to protect the state’s interests, the total damage caused to the state by lawsuits, initiated criminal cases and materials sent to the investigative bodies amounted to 33 billion AMD, and about 1.2 billion AMD were recovered.

 

The Prosecutor General noted that, despite the large-scale works done in the mentioned areas, it is necessary to expand the efforts of the territorial subdivisions of the Prosecutor's Office aimed at the full implementation of the function of protecting state interests, specifying in advance the risk areas of the respective regions. In addition to that, Artur Davtyan instructed, by the clearly planned actions, to give priority to the identification and restoration of damage caused by crimes to the state, which will become one of the main criteria for evaluating effectiveness. The task was also set by the use of super-active measures of prosecutorial influence to facilitate the completion of investigations of criminal cases regarding corruption and to send them to the court together with the indictment as soon as possible. Moreover, special attention was paid to the active operational search measures undertaken to identify property hidden by people involved in corruption cases as an accused.

 

During the board meeting, the state of crimes against property and, in particular, the level of fight against burglaries were considered alarming. Taking into account the fact that in some territories where a great consistency was shown in the establishment of technical security equipment by the initiative of the Prosecutor's Office, there was a noticeable tendency both in reducing burglaries and in improving disclosure indicators, it was instructed to intensify works in this direction also in other territories, attracting local self-government bodies and other competent authorities in the field of cooperation.

 

In the context of the effectiveness of the prosecutorial supervision over the legality of applying other penalties and other means of compulsion, the RA Prosecutor General attached particular importance to ensuring harmony in the protection of the rights of people kept in penitentiary institutions and the goals of punishment through the exercise of absolutely legitimate prosecutorial functions.

 

During the board meeting, the RA Prosecutor General gave other specific instructions related to various issues, attached the issues of the need for full intolerance in relation to the criminal subculture.