The Prosecutor General’s Office provided the Decision on the Discontinuing the Criminal Case on “Electric Yerevan”.

In response to the letter filed by the Organization, by the letter dated May 2019 of 2019, the Prosecutor General’s Office provided the decision made in regard to discontinuation of the criminal case number 62217915.

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the appeal, filed by the Organization against the decision to discontinue the proceeding of the criminal case made by the body in charge of conducting the proceeding, in terms of conducting necessary investigative activities and making of criminal-procedural decisions, as well as assigning the relevant bodies to carry out operative-investigative measures, is a subject of satisfaction.

As a justification to the decision, it was mentioned by the Prosecutor General’s Office, that within the scope of the given criminal case, the assignment to the police bodies to collect information about the circumstances of the case, can not be assessed as a guarantee of practical independence for the investigation, taking into consideration of the circumstance, that the police workers should collect information about the alleged crime and provide it to the body in charge of conducting the proceeding.

It was also mentioned, that each case related to the illegal detainment of the peaceful protest participants and keeping the latter more than as prescribed by the law, need a comprehensive investigation to detect the scope of the people who made such orders, the legality of the grounds for detainment and in this regard give criminal evaluation to the deeds of each policemen, after which to solve the issues of discontinuing the proceeding of the criminal case.

It should be mentioned, that after four years of the preliminary investigation, the Special Investigation Service made a decision to discontinue the proceeding of the criminal case number 62217915 dated March 4 of 2019, by justifying the decision with the reasoning “the person involved as accused is unanimous”.

On March 14 of 2019, the advocates of the “Protection of Rights without Borders” NGO, who were representing the interests of the peaceful protest participants in the criminal proceeding, filed an appeal to the Prosecutor General’s Office against the decision made by the Special Investigation Service on discontinuing the proceeding instituted in regard to the citizens who suffered the ill treatment of the Police during the sit-in of “No Robbery” initiative against the increase of electricity fees on June 23 of 2015.

It was informed by the letter dated April 30 of 2019, that the Prosecutor General’s Office restarted the criminal case number 62217915 to eliminate the discontinuation decision. But the Organization was not provided with the above-mentioned decision, as prescribed by the RA Criminal Procedural Code, where the justification of eliminating the criminal cases should be presented.

On May 2 of 2019, the Organization applied to the Prosecutor General’s Office asking to provide the above-mentioned decision in a line with the relevant law.