5 minute read
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said he has set a serious task before the criminal justice system to pay proper attention, particularly to the investigation of crimes committed against socially vulnerable persons, including minors.
The Prime Minister said at a press briefing that he had asked the Prosecutor General Anna Vardapetyan to examine criminal cases concerning sexual assaults against minors that were dropped over the past 10-15 years.
“I have set a very serious task before the criminal justice system. I say that I see that in the Republic of Armenia, particularly cases of sexual assaults against young children are not being properly investigated. Do you know why? Because most likely such an incident happens to children who do not have a strong social support network. If the state does not stand behind those children in that situation, who will stand behind them?” Pashinyan said.
According to him, the independence of the judiciary does not free the executive branch from political responsibility for the situation in the country.
“I am the political person responsible for that. When we want to bear political responsibility for it, they say, what about the independence of the courts? So, is the independence of the court meant to be in favor of a looter and against raped children? How can such a thing be? For example, I asked the Prosecutor General to take out and look again at all the closed cases of sexual assaults against minors from the past 10-15 years. I go to villages, people tell me things—I want the ground to swallow me up—cases that the entire village knows about,” the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister also linked his criticism of the criminal justice system’s performance to ongoing cases involving former high-ranking officials.
“I have said that there is a problem in the criminal justice system. I say, these cases that exist, which they also link to political processes, are they new cases? Did we only recently find out that Robert Kocharyan is a billionaire or that Gagik Khachatryan is a billionaire?” Pashinyan said.
He also criticized situations in which the health condition of participants in criminal proceedings becomes an obstacle to the conduct of the proceedings.
“These people were spinning around on a horizontal bar a month ago, and as soon as they see the charges, they become terminally ill. What kind of logic is this? If they are terminally ill, they should have said during the elections that they are terminally ill,” the Prime Minister said.
According to Pashinyan, the problem is not only in the criminal justice system, and the accumulation of separate small problems at various stages of proceedings ultimately affects the outcome of cases.
“Something happens at a small operational level, something very small happens at the investigative level, something very small happens at the prosecutorial level, something very small happens at the procedural level, and then they say, well, it is the presumption of innocence,” he said.
Pashinyan mentioned the names of ex-president Robert Kocharyan, ex-president Serzh Sargsyan, former tax chief Gagik Khachatryan and businessman and Prosperous Armenia leader Gagik Tsarukyan, questioning whether the same approach is applied to socially vulnerable citizens.
“So, in this country, the presumption of innocence is enjoyed by Gagik Khachatryan, Robert Kocharyan, Serzh Sargsyan, and Gagik Tsarukyan. Let’s go and see—do they treat some poor, helpless person in the same way?” Pashinyan said.