SECOND BUILDING OF NATIONAL BUREAU OF EXPERTISE OPENS IN YEREVAN

Noyan Tapan
Dec 9, 2009

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, NOYAN TAPAN. The opening ceremony of the second
building of the Armenian National Bureau of Expertise took place in
Yerevan on December 8. The U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Marie Yovanovitch
and the Prosecutor General of Armenia Aghvan Hovsepian participated
in the ceremony.

The building has been repaired and equipped with modern fire alarm,
telephone, and security systems thanks to 1 million 275 thousand
dollars invested by the U.S. government under the narcotics control
and law enforcement project.

In the words of A. Hovsepian, the National Bureau of Expertise,
which is not subordinate to any department and therefore is free from
pressure, is now in its development stage. It was mentioned that from
the financial, technical and scientific point of view, Armenia would
not be able to found and develop the Bureau without the assistance
of the U.S. government.

"Today we can already say that work of the National Bureau of Expertise
greatly helps us to collect evidence in criminal and civil cases,
eventually – to disclose crimes and hold those guilty accountable," the
RA prosecutor general declared. He underlined that a few years ago only
several dozen expert examinations were made, whereas now their number
has reached several thousand (24 kinds of forensic examinations).

M. Yovanovitch said that the national security and prosperity of any
country depends on the rule of law and fair administration of justice,
whereas there can be no justice without material evidence. According
to her, the National Bureau of Expertise is one of Armenia’s leading
institutions engaged in impartial expert analysis of material
evidence and thus supporting justice and the rule of law for the
people of Armenia.