Proceedings under private charge to be launched in Armenia for the first time

Acting Minister of Justice Armenuhi Harutyunyan presented at the Government sitting the draft Decision of the Government of the Republic of Armenia "On giving consent to a proposal to increase the number of judges with criminal specialisation in the Courts of First Instance of General Jurisdiction of the Republic of Armenia”. Upon the Decision of the Government, it is envisaged to increase the number of judges with criminal specialisation in the Courts of First Instance of General Jurisdiction of the Republic of Armenia by eight. The need for the Decision arose from the following legislative requirements: Article 15 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia adopted on 5 May 2021 prescribes offences for the commission whereof the person may be subjected to criminal liability only based on the criminal action of the victim of the crime. There are 25 such offences, of which, in case the offence is qualified under part 1 (due to the amount of property damage or in the absence of aggravating circumstances of the act), the proceedings shall be conducted without pre-trial proceedings, not through a public charge, and directly by the court, in the proceedings under private charge. Currently, proceedings with regard to these offences are not conducted through the procedure of private charges since there are transitional provisions in the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia, according to which the proceedings under private charge shall apply under criminal proceedings initiated after the establishment of courts with the jurisdiction to carry them out or the appointment of judges, and before that, criminal prosecution under the proceedings with regard to crimes provided for by part 1 of Article 15 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia, is carried out under public procedure. Armenuhi Harutyunyan mentioned that, unlike the criminal prosecutions conducted under public charge, the proceeding under private charge consists only of trial stages. Therefore, the criminal prosecution conducted under private charge shall be terminated, and the criminal proceedings shall be dismissed in the court based on the following grounds: (1) the victim and the accused have reconciled; (2) the victim has withdrawn the charge; (3) the victim and their representative have not appeared in the court session without a valid reason. These are the exhaustive conditions under which the proceedings may be dismissed, and no other grounds are prescribed for the court. Thus, to initiate proceedings under a private charge, judges with the authority to conduct them shall be appointed, meaning the number of judges with criminal specialisation must be increased. Statistical data for 2021-2023, particularly the fact that during the period between 1 January 2021 and 30 June 2023, under part 1 of Article 15 of the Criminal Code, 1108 cases were examined in the Court of First Instance of General Jurisdiction of the Republic of Armenia, of which 475 were examined by Yerevan Criminal Court of First Instance, and 633 — by Regional Courts of First Instance of General Jurisdiction. The number of proceedings related to the offences provided for by part 1 of Article 15 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia drastically grew after 1 July 2022.

By comparing the statistical data, it became obvious that the burden of pre-trial proceedings will be shifted to court proceedings; therefore, it became necessary to increase the number of judges with criminal specialisation of the Court of First Instance of General Jurisdiction of the Republic of Armenia by 8 judges.