Eranui Tumanyants: new Armenian Code of Criminal Procedure to relieve penitentiary institutions

The draft of the new Armenian Code of Criminal Procedure has been approved by the government and submitted to the Parliament for consideration. This was reported by Grair Tovmasyan, Minister of Justice, at a special briefing. Lawyers interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent expect that the new Code will significantly reduce the proportion of arrests in all possible pre-trial restriction measures.

The Minister of Justice has expressed his hope that the new Code will be adopted at the spring session of the Parliament and will come into force in autumn 2014.

At present, 2954 persons are kept in Armenian penitentiary institutions on the basis of judicial verdicts which entered into force against them. The Armenian penitentiary institutions also contain 1900 arrested persons, whose cases are under preliminary investigation. This was told to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Karine Kalantaryan, Press Secretary of the Ministry of Justice.

In most cases, because of imperfection of the laws, in particular, the Code of Criminal Procedure and because of enforcement practices that have been already formed, a person is deprived of liberty, and thus his/her rights are violated, while his/her guilt is not proved yet. This was emphasized by Eranui Tumanyants, an advisor to the Armenian Ombudsman. According to her, in Armenia, in most cases, arrest the strictest pre-trial restriction measure is applied as a preventive measure.

Eranui Tumanyants has explained that the Ombudsman's Office has submitted its comments and suggestions to the prepared draft of the Code of Criminal Procedure. However, the only new document will not solve all problems.

"In the initial period, some problems may arise from application of the new Code. I think that first of all, we need change in the legal mentality of the investigating bodies and courts concerning pre-trial restriction measures, especially concerning such a form of measure, as arrest," Eranui Tumanyants has emphasized.