Number of defendants in 2018 grew: Attorney General

The Armenian law enforcement bodies have picked lessons from the verdicts of European Court of Human Rights, Armenia’s attorney general Artur Davtyan said today at the NA’s State-Legal Affairs Standing Committee session, briefing the 2018 action report.

Davtyan said that besides the ECHR verdicts they have also studied the European court’s case law and worked out practical landmarks.

“These landmarks have become table books for the law enforcers. According to my assessment, they have given serious results in very short period of time,” the official said.

The result is that currently the defendants are being taken to custody less.

“In 2018 the number of defendants passing with criminal cases raised by 10% as compared with 2017 and this is in conditions when in 2018 20% less arrest petitions were submitted to courts. What I want to say is that the number of defendants grew but the number of arrest petitions reduced. It shows that the issue of choosing arrest as prevention measure is to be seriously discussed,” Davtyan said.

The attorney general said that in case of small or medium grave crimes the defendants are more frequently left in freedom but only in case when clear facts exist that they will not impede the examination. In cases of grave and particularly grave crimes the defendants are being arrested.