ARMENIAN COURTS DO NOT PASS VERDICTS OF NO GUILTY

Lragir.am
9 Aug 06

According to the justice of the Appeals Court of Armenia Hovanes
Manukyan, in the first half of 2006 1879 people were convicted,
including 80 teenagers, four people were acquitted. In the same
period of the previous year 1946 people were convicted, 88 teenagers,
6 persons were acquitted. The rate of verdicts of no guilty is 0.04
percent, "which cannot be considered as positive".

According to Hovanes Manukyan, in European countries, such as Belgium,
verdicts of no guilty totaled 4.94 percent. In the CIS the situation
is better than in Armenia: 0.1 percent in Kazakhstan, 3 percent in
Russia, including 18 percent of verdicts passed by the jury.

"The low rate has both objective and subjective reasons. The quality
of investigation also has its role and effect. The weak tactics of
attorneys also has its role, as well as I would like to emphasize
the sufficient quality of the judges," says Hovanes Manukyan. These
are the subjective reasons. And an objective cause of the absence of
verdicts of no guilty is the imperfection of the legislation. "For
instance, the institution of additional investigation, which is an
atavism of the Soviet criminal law."

In this context, Hovanes Manukyan emphasizes the importance of the
prevention of the possibility of an additional investigation through
judicial reforms and establishment of the judicial school.

In the meantime, our justice is rather rigid. In the first half of
2006, 2184 cases were tried, in 2025 cases the indicted were sentenced
to an arrest, the sentence was prolonged in 361 cases and only in 14
the indicted were freed on bail.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress