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  • Public Pressures Is Helpful To Investigative Bodies

    PUBLIC PRESSURES IS HELPFUL TO INVESTIGATIVE BODIES

    Interview with Ara Ghazaryan, deputy director of ARNI Consult Law Firm

    Mr. Ghazaryan, the annual report of the Department of State states
    "courts remained subject to political pressure from the executive
    branch". Acquittals are 1.5%. So, are changes in the judiciary aimed
    at form, not content?

    First, the reports of the State Department are mostly collective and
    general, I would not rely on them because we are going through reforms
    and we can assess the state of things better. In 2009 acquittals
    were 25, in 2010 - 56, in 2011 - 77. People are increasingly prone to
    apply to courts, the courts are overloaded. The number of judges per
    population is too few, the number of judges must be boosted as courts
    are receiving more applications. According to last year's statistics,
    20,000 cases were sent to the administrative court only. This court
    has most overload, and the question occurs whether the steep rise of
    number of applications to courts speaks about lack of confidence in
    courts... Not, of course. One of the answers could be diversification
    of legal relations. There are a lot of alternatives, extra-judiciary
    mechanisms where the same growth of cases is not observed. So,
    confidence is not deceasing at least if the number of applications
    to court grows.

    In your opinion, was the notorious case of Mataghis the result of a
    single-handed decision and was it the judge's decision? Is the court
    able to be independent from the government?

    The public is aware of those cases which are covered by journalists,
    while journalists cover those cases which present public interest. As
    a professional, a student, I see a full picture. The case of Mataghis
    is an exception due to the force of its evidence, I do not take it
    as a standard. For me the standard is the 30 factors worked out by
    American lawyers which measure the performance of judicial reforms.

    These factors include the salary of judges, self-regulatory mechanisms
    etc. Compiling all the facts, I can report growth in many aspects.

    Today the key issue is the independence of courts. Of course, the
    judicial system is not fully independent but it is a process, and there
    are guarantees of independence, and the judicial system is making an
    important bid, and now they are speaking about internal independence
    of judges. While the courts are subject to political pressure, the
    internal system, including the Court of Cassation, the Council of
    Justice, the Judicial Department and other institutions, have developed
    to a degree that now judges are in dependence on the internal system,
    the self-regulatory bodies of the judiciary. We learn from different
    cases that the judicial system counteracts pressure. Of course, there
    are cases when a judge is unable to resist the executive but they
    tend to decrease. The executive has understood that if intervention
    continues, international investments will decrease because foreign
    investors first look at the mechanisms of judicial protection. In
    lots of spheres these mechanisms are effective, in others, such as
    tax justice, judicial check is lame but this is a process, and the
    vector is directed at development.

    The case of Harsnakar was vociferous in the beginning but seems to be
    entering into a deadlock. Is the interest of one person subordinated
    to the public interest?

    The court examination is in progress, we cannot give evaluations now.

    The defenders of the victim have filed a number of complaints during
    the preliminary examination but this is not a measurement because
    defense starts working only at the end of the preliminary examination
    so it is early to make evaluations. Second, there is no evidence that
    Ruben Hairapetyan was engaged in the incident, it is a presumption
    that it could not be that he was not engaged in the incident. If he
    was engaged, I very much doubt that fair trial will reach him. His
    sponsors will protect him. Unfortunately, this factor has to be taken
    into consideration. However, the Council for the Defense is unable
    to provide evidence that Ruben Hairapetyan knew or was engaged in
    the incident.

    Does the inspection of the scene with a three-day delay indicate a
    tendency to cover up the case?

    Yes, at the beginning the tendency of cover-up was evident. First the
    case was sent to the Ministry of Defense because the subject was an
    officer who was supposed to have broken the law. However, the public
    backlash caused the ministry of defense to send the case back, and
    the statement of the chief of police followed who said that soon some
    people would be arrested. This is not the usual practice. A chief of
    police would not announce arrests beforehand.

    So does it take public pressure to control the process?

    Public pressure is helpful to the investigative bodies. They take
    public opinion into consideration more than ever, the judiciary as
    well. This is one of the biggest achievements of March 1. I teach
    at the Prosecutors School, they take public opinion seriously, and
    the reforms these institutions are undergoing are the result of a
    political decision rather than public pressure.

    Investigators are the most important actors in the stage of preliminary
    examination but there are not enough resources. The investigative
    bodies must have more resources to upgrade their practice.

    We often see cases sent to court where evidence is marred with
    shortcomings which are the result of scarce resources.

    There must be public control and a corpus of unbiased advocates to
    turn the wheel of justice.

    Siranuysh Papyan 15:43 07/06/2013 Story from Lragir.am News:
    http://www.lragir.am/index/eng/0/interview/view/30082

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