The Criminal Case Instituted in Regard to the Citizens, who Suffered the Ill Treatment of Police Activities During April 16-23 of 2018, was Discontinued

On April 18 of 2019, the lawyers of the Protection of Rights without Borders filed an appeal to the Prosecutor General’s Office against the decision made in regard to discontinuing the proceeding of the criminal case number 62212818 instituted at the Special Investigation Service in regard to the citizens, who suffered the ill treatment of the Police during the peaceful assemblies within the period of April 16-23 of 2018 taking place in the Republic of Armenia.

It should be mentioned, that the criminal case was discontinued by the Special Investigation Service back on November 16 of 2018, meanwhile the victims and their representatives were not informed about it. Only in response to the inquiry made by the representatives of the victims, the body in charge of conducting the proceeding provided the decision on discontinuation on April 9 of 2019, according to which the proceeding of the criminal case was discontinued with the reasoning “the person to be involved as an accused is unanimous”.

On April 29 of 2019, the Organization received the decision of the Prosecutor General’s Office , according to which the appeal filed by the Organization was rejected with the reasoning of being groundless.

The Prosecutor General’s Office reasoned its decision that all the measures prescribed by the RA Criminal Procedural Code have been carried out by the body in charge of conducting the preliminary investigation of the proceeding being investigated at the Special Investigation Service, during which sufficient evidence was not obtained regarding the guilt for carrying out publically dangerous dead, that means that it was not possible to detect the individual, who should have been involved in that case as an accused.

The Organization insisted in its appeal filed to the Prosecutor General’s Office that not all the necessary and investigative measures prescribed by the RA Criminal Procedural Code have been carried out by the body in charge of conducting the preliminary investigation of the proceeding.

Particularly, the investigator, in its decision, proceeded the announcements and applications made about the ill treatment, violence cases against the 104 citizens within the scope of the criminal case. In a line with the decision, within the scope of criminal cases 55 citizens were recognizes as victims, who were illegally detains and subjected to violence in different circumstances.

In this case, it would not be possible to discontinue the criminal case instituted in regard to the people subjected to inhuman and ill treatment in the same conditions, in different circumstance with the same ground and justification as prescribed by the RA Criminal Procedural Code

Meanwhile, no other investigative activities, except the interrogation, was carried out, people mentioned by the latter or described by the letter were not detected, face to face interrogations between the accused and the latter were not conducted in case of which it would be possible to gain sufficient proofs to display an accusation against the  accused.

It is notable, that within the scope of the criminal case, the Special Investigation Service also possessed a number of proofs published by the media, which covered the events taking place in Yerevan within the period of April 16-23 of 2016, including detainment of the policemen, subjecting the latter to inhuman treatment, application of violence: in the outcomes of the proper examination of the mentioned cases, it would be possible to identify the detained policemen also the policemen, who were subjected to violence.

The decision made by the Prosecutor General’s Office will be appealed by the Organization.

Decision Prosecutor General’s Office

Descision Special Invetigation Service