“We have to think outside the ‘box’,” Karen Zadoyan, President of Armenian Lawyers’ Association, Coordinator of the CSOs’ Anti-Corruption Coalition Secretariat proposed to Gevorg Kostanyan and other officials who consider that in fight against corruption it is necessary to be satisfied with the already existing legal solutions.
Notably, on 30 May, the former Prosecutor general Gevorg Kostanyan in his answers to Iravabana.net expressed his opposition to the approach to the fight against corruption needs to create a new body with law enforcement functions. “If we change Constitution and create additional new factor, which will have the right to investigate corruption crimes, that is the investigator and the prosecutor investigating corruption crimes, tomorrow based on the same principle we can create a special investigator and prosecutor for the protection of children’s rights. The concept will be broken,” Mr. Kostanyan said.
In an interview with us referring to Gevorg Kostanyan’s observations, Mr. Karen Zadoyan proposed to leave the already formed stereotypes and study the international experience. “If Mr. Kostanyan studied international experience he would have seen that in countries that have launched efficient struggle against corruption (I can mention Malaysia), currently have set up specialized courts to investigate such crimes.” This means that the countries, which have successful fight against corruption have moved forward. In addition to the institutes of investigators and prosecutors that examine corruption cases, they have established specialized courts as well.
Karen Zadoyan recalled that the former officials were speaking in such a way about criminalization of illicit enrichment as well as introduction of the whistleblowers’ system. However, the time showed that they were wrong, “We came out of that stereotypical attitudes. I believe we will also overcome these attitudes. Sooner or later we have to change the constitutional provisions and provide for an independent anti-corruption body.” Currently we have all prerequisites in current Constitution, “It is possible to make these changes by 2/3 of the deputies and provide for the anti-corruption body as well as its powers,” Mr. Zadoyan said.
ALA President says that the Constitution is not the Gospel, and that it regulates public relations, and it must reflect expectations of the community. “If at some stage the expectations are changed, so it is necessary to change the Constitution. In this case the public behavior has shown that in the past few years there is a crisis of confidence. The public wants to see real results in the fight against corruption, including in its prevention, education, and inevitability of punishment. Especially wants to see the inevitability of punishment. The public wants that all are equal before law.”
Notably, in addition to Malaysia, there are specialized courts dealing with corruption offenses in Indonesia, Botswana, which notably is the leading country in the fight against corruption, as well as in Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia and others.
Gevorg Tosunyan
Iravaban.net
