16:53,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 30, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a consultation with top law enforcement officials and representatives of the judiciary, his office said in a news release.
The consultation was attended by National Security Service (NSS) Director Armen Abazyan, Police Chief Vahe Ghazaryan, Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan, Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on State-Legal Affairs Vladimir Vardanyan, Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan, Special Investigations Service Director Sasun Khachatryan, Committee of Investigations Director Hayk Grigoryan, members of the Supreme Judicial Council, candidate for president of the Court of Cassation Lilit Tadevosyan, President of the Administrative Court of Appeals Hovsep Badevyan, President of the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction Artur Mkrtchyan and other officials.
The Prime Minister said that in the current situation the growing public demand is for the government bodies and institutions to work clearly. “I am speaking in this case especially about the law enforcement system and the protection of law and order. During today’s discussion I’d like us to exchange views and share assessments as to what extent do institutions aimed at protecting law and order function duly today and what is our assessment, including from the perspective of ensuring partnership and lawfulness. I’d like to speak about a specific example. As you know, overnight November 10 events took place, and, essentially an attack happened against the Speaker of Parliament. Under these cases criminal charges are now pressed against 50 people, of which motions for arrest warrants have been filed to courts for 42 of them. 20 of the motions were rejected, 18 were granted, two people were jailed in the case of the attack on the Speaker of Parliament, and the jailing of another person was rejected. If I correctly voiced this, this statistics and the main question is the following: what is our assessment, to what extent is this situation a proper response to what has happened, if we find it to be proper, let’s take note of it, if we don’t – then let’s understand what the problem is and why we have this situation,” Pashinyan said.
Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan and the NSS Department of Investigations Director Artur Poghosyan briefed on the legal procedures regarding the November 10 overnight events and the studies and investigations results.
“In this context, a substantive discussion took place on the process of the opened criminal cases, the discovering of people involved in actions constituting crimes and organizing them and the activity of the judiciary. Various observations and opinions were presented. Summing up the consultation, Prime Minister Pashinyan underscored that as a result of the law enforcement system’s activities every citizen in Armenia, regardless of their position, ought to feel themselves fully protected, while the law enforcement system’s activity must be maximally aimed at solving this issue. In this context, the Prime Minister highlighted ensuring the effective and close cooperation of the law enforcement system bodies,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a news release.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan