Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor

On February 2, 2024, HCAV submitted a crime report to the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Armenia based on the famous investigative article by Infocom. On March 26, the Organization received a letter that no crime signs were found by the investigation carried out by the Central Department of the Yerevan City Department of the RA Ministry of Internal Affairs Police. 

On May 2, 2024, HCAV submitted a complaint to the Criminal Court of First Instance of General Jurisdiction of the City of Yerevan regarding the dispute of the pretrial act and asked to initiate a criminal proceeding based on an apparent crime. 

The Court of General Jurisdiction of First Instance rejected the submitted complaint, incorrectly interpreting and applying several articles of the Criminal Procedure Code of RA, which refer to the initiation of the criminal proceedings and, in case of non-initiation, the terms and procedure of their appeal. 

Particularly, according to the interpretation of the Criminal Court of First Instance of General Jurisdiction, HCAV did not follow the procedural order for filing a complaint against the non-initiation of criminal proceeding; the complaint was not submitted within a 15-day period. 

The Organization did not violate the requirements of the Criminal Procedure Code, and  the Organization was not notified within 24 hours about the non-initiation of the proceedings based on the submitted report. After learning of this, the Organization appealed the decision in due time in the order of superiority, while after learning of the rejection, it again appealed to the court within the proper time frame. 

The Organization submitted a complaint to the Criminal Court of Appeal of the Republic of Armenia against the decision of the court, substantiating the illegality of the decision and the contradiction of the objectives of the RA Criminal Procedure Code, that is, establishing an effective order of alleged crimes based on the guarantee of human rights and freedoms. 

The Criminal Court of Appeal of the Republic of Armenia satisfied the submitted complaint by the Organization, and guided by the decisions of the ECHR and RA Court of Cassation, as well as by the decisions of the Constitutional Court of the RA, it recorded that the state can define some conditions for exercising the right to access the court, though the applied restrictions shouldn’t limit a person's right of access to the court to such an extent that it harms the very essence of that right. 

The Criminal Court of Appeal of the Republic of Armenia did not consider the argumentation of the Court of First Instance reasonable. The appellate court stated that non-initiation of the proceeding within 24 hours, in itself, cannot be a basis for restricting the right to judicial protection. The Criminal Court of Appeal of the Republic of Armenia has sent the case to the lower court for a new trial and has recorded that if the appellate criminal court makes a decision based on the complaint, the functional relation between the first instance court and the appellate court will be disturbed, as the first instance court has not examined the case in essence and has not expressed substantiate and legal position. 

As a result, we state that the Criminal Court of Appeal has clearly interpreted articles 178-179 and 300 of the Criminal Procedure Code of RA, defining the correct procedure for appealing the initiation or non-initiation of criminal proceedings. The case has been sent to the lower court for a new trial.