YEREVAN, JULY 10, ARMENPRESS. The Prosecutor General’s Office of Armenia should assume the role of human rights defender which will significantly increase the trust towards that structure, RPA faction MP, former Prosecutor General Gevorg Kostanyan said during the parliamentary discussion of the report on 2016 activity of the Prosecutor General’s Office, reports Armenpress.

“The President of the Republic stated that the prosecutor’s office must have a role of human rights defender. If previously we were talking about the principle of the rule of law, now we have switched from the rule of law to supremacy of right, this means that if the law works but contradicts to human rights in terms of content, the priority must be given to the right. The prosecutor’s office has always had a punitive perception among the people. Yes, the President gave the right direction: any defendant must be so confident that the prosecutor’s office is the guarantor of lawfulness so that he/she will no more need a lawyer. The prosecutor’s office must assume the role of guarantor of lawfulness”, Gevorg Kostanyan said.

He expressed confidence that the use of the abovementioned mechanism will increase the level of public trust towards the prosecutor’s office in Armenia.

He also touched upon the problem of detentions adding that there are many problems here which should be solved. “The talk is not about the number of detentions and its general nature, it must be maximally justified. Every time by detaining the investigative body, the court must justify the grounds based on which the person is detained”.