Compared to previous years, the cases of murder and attempted murder have decreased in Armenia. Samvel Tonoyan, first class councilor of justice, the Head of the Department of Investigation of Crimes against Humanity of the General Department of Investigation of Particularly Important Cases said within the framework of “The Investigator Presents” series of interviews of Iravaban.net.

– Mr. Tonoyan, how would you evaluate the work of the department you lead during the past year?

– During 2022, I will assess the work of both the RA Investigative Committee and the Department of Investigation of Crimes against Humanity as overburdened. If we talk purely with numerical data, I can say that 1,101 criminal cases/proceedings/ were examined in the main department of the General Department of Investigation of Particularly Important Cases in 2022, of which 206 were transferred from 2021, last year 796 criminal cases were examined, of which 126 were transferred from 2020. In other words, the number of criminal cases/proceedings/ examined in the proceedings increased by 305 or 38.3%.

This increase in the amount of proceedings is unprecedented, which, due to known legislative changes, I am sure will increase.

As a result of a simple analysis, it is obvious that the number of criminal cases/proceedings/ transferred from the reporting period of the previous year, as well as the number of proceedings initiated during that period, have increased.

-Which types of crimes were more prevalent last year and why? 

– Crimes against human life, mainly murders, as well as crimes against health are the predominant part of the department’s proceedings. Crimes against sexual freedom and sexual integrity were also investigated in the department.

As in other departments of the General Department of Investigation of Particularly Important Cases of the Investigative Committee, as well as in the Department of Investigation of Crimes against Humanity, mainly high-profile, state-significant, complex, multi-episode cases related to public figures were investigated, as well as cases in which serious problems have arisen in connection with investigation and disclosure in the divisions of the Capital city or in the regional divisions.

– What crimes were revealed during the year 2022 as a result of the investigations carried out by the investigators of the department?

– During 2022, a number of cases known to the public were completed in the Department of Investigation of Crimes against Humanity. In particular:

• Organizing mass riots in “Nubarashen” penitentiary institution.
• Giving an obviously false conclusion by a forensic expert.
• Illegally making and selling firearms and their accessories by a former employee of the RA Ministry of Defense.
• Frauds during conscription, fraudulently extorting money from parents of conscripts for providing false medical diagnoses.
• The attempted murder with the use of firearms near the “Tokhmakh Cemetery” and the abduction of a person prior to it.
• A particularly large-scale extortion of a Persian-Armenian businessman in the city of Yerevan, kidnapping by a group, and then his murder in the Ararat Marz.
• The murder and other acts committed with the use of firearms near the “Don Quixote” restaurant operating in Yerevan.
• Attempted murder of two or more persons in the city of Goris in a manner dangerous to the lives of many.
• Preparing murder and committing other crimes by a criminal group in Etchmiadzin region of Armavir marz.
• Mass riots in Yerevan in May-June 2022.
• As well as pending criminal proceedings on other cases.

– What are the factors affecting the quality and effectiveness of the preliminary investigation of crimes against a person? Are there certain features?

-Many factors affect. In particular, I would like to talk about examinations. Delays in examinations negatively affect the quality and timing of preliminary investigations. Of course, it is understandable that the problem is due to overloading of expert institutions. However, we also have a positive trend in this field. Recently, expert institutions have begun to equip with modern scientific, technical and methodological equipment, which has a positive effect on the preliminary investigation of criminal proceedings. The workload of investigators is also a serious problem.

– In the recent period, cases of murders, inflicting serious bodily injuries with the use of firearms or knives have become noticeable. What do the studies of criminal proceedings show? What are the reasons? Are we dealing with the growth of organized crime in the republic?

– Those ideas are wrong and, perhaps, they are caused by sometimes excessive noise about the events recorded in the new information environment. And in fact, compared to previous years, the cases of murder and attempted murder have decreased, which is what the statistics show.

Thus, 58 cases of murder and 46 cases of attempted murder were registered during 2022. Compared to the previous year, the number of murders decreased by 2 (60 in 2021) and attempted murders by 1 (47 in 2021).

45 or 77.6% of the murder cases were revealed. 33 or 71.7% of the 46 registered murder attempts were disclosed.

I must mention that it is unnecessary to even talk about the growth of organized crime, because the vast majority of cases have domestic, interpersonal motives.

– How does hate speech in the public environment affect the state of general crime and the dynamics of crimes against people? And what do the law enforcement agencies, particularly the Investigative Committee, have to do to eliminate that cause?

– Hate speech is an extremely serious criminal phenomenon, especially in terms of crimes against people. Very often, insults directed at each other become the cause of reprisals. It is even more dangerous when this speech is generated in the public domain, where due to the lack of self-restraint, public reprehension and intolerance, such behavior begins to be perceived as a legitimate, ordinary phenomenon with all the consequences that arise from it.

Hate speech is not criminalized in Armenia and relations in this field are regulated in the civil and legal domain. However, in many cases, also based on certain features related to mentality, people prefer other criminal means to find out relationships instead of legal procedures. In this sense, everyone should take care to fight against hate speech in the public space, show complete intolerance against it.

– There are sometimes signals from the public, that the investigation of cases of particularly serious crimes against humanity and other crimes are being unnecessarily delayed. And delayed justice leads to the deepening of perceptions of impunity. How do you evaluate the efficiency of the investigations of the cases in the proceedings of your department in terms of examination dates, and to what extent are such impulses justified?

– As I mentioned, in the Department of Investigation of Crimes against Humanity, criminal proceedings regarding murders are investigated. And the employees of the department are directly dealing with the right to life of individuals, and, as is known, they consider the right to life as an inalienable right of every person and place an obligation on the state to do everything so that a person’s life is not endangered, and in case of murder, the case is investigated effectively. It is fixed both by domestic legislation and by a number of international declarations. For that reason, the Department of Investigation of Crimes against Humanity is staffed by conscientious and diligent officers having many years of experience and a responsible attitude towards official duties. They implement all possible measures in order to reduce the duration of proceedings and to examine them efficiently.

And as for the impulses voiced by the public, here, since we mostly deal with emotional and stressful feelings of people, the over-tension of situations, I think that such responses from the public are mostly non-objective in nature. It is also understandable, however, I assure that our investigators are doing everything possible to complete the preliminary investigation in a possibly short period of time.

– The new Code of Criminal Procedure has provided significant time limits for criminal prosecutions, which forces pre-investigative bodies to speed up the pace of investigations. In addition, suspended cases should be reopened and final decisions on them made. How will these orders affect the proceedings in the department? Do you have any concerns?

– Although the department works in an overloaded mode, it fulfills the tasks set before it with honor. As for the resumption of suspended cases, I should mention that systematic work is being done in this direction: a list of cases in the department’s proceedings has been drawn up, a list of resumption proceedings has been planned on a monthly basis, which are currently being carried out. In addition, in 35 proceedings in the department, motions were initiated to suspend the period of public criminal prosecution against 40 persons, most of which have already been satisfied by supervising prosecutors. Thus, I have no serious concerns.

This initiative, implemented in cooperation with the RA Investigative Committee and the Iravaban.net website, aims to properly present to the public the main directions of the work carried out by the preliminary investigation body, to reflect on the peculiarities of pre-trial proceedings and other issues of public importance.