EQUAL UNDER LAW?: DRAFT LEGISLATION RAISES QUESTIONS OF POLITICS AND PROPRIETY

This week the National Assembly passed the draft law “On Special Investigation Service” by first hearing with 96 for, 11 against and one abstention. If the lawmakers pass the law, it’ll come into force starting December 1. The draft law envisages the creation of a body that would implement preliminary investigation on crimes committed by employees in leading positions at executive, legislative and judicial bodies as well as criminal cases in connection with election processes. The draft law is grounded by its [assumed] assistance to fortified struggle against corruption and abuse.
The draft law was presented to the National Assembly by RA Minister of Justice Gevorg Danielyan. He declared that the idea was his and he was the one who had worked it out with nobody else’s participation.
“This body that has no precedent in Armenia would be authorized to investigate such criminal cases that are a matter of great publicity, and are connected to the status of officials [public officers]. Major election crimes will also be investigated,” says the minister.
The Service will be authorized to carry out preliminary investigation of crimes committed by Prosecutor’s office, the Police, National Security Service, Tax and Custom services, the Service for Compulsory Execution of Judicial Acts officials during the discharge of their official duties.
A catch in the draft is that the head of that new body would be appointed and dismissed by the RA President on the Prosecutor General’s nomination. The legality of the implemented preliminary investigation would be controlled by the Prosecutor General and other Prosecutors authorized by him. There is an opinion in the political circles that the draft law raised serious contradictions between the President and the Prime Minister. In fact, the control over state officials goes completely to the President’s authority.
The formation of a new body prior to presidential elections especially worries the NA parliamentary factions. Heritage faction leader Raffi Hovannisian raises a question: “Isn’t this the kind of body that has to be appointed by the National Assembly?”
David Harutyunyan, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on State-Legal Issues, considers the opposition factions’ proposal to be unacceptable, saying that the RA Constitution does not provide the NA with such authority. Instead he thinks that the Prime Minister has to be the one nominating the head of that body, and the President the one appointing him.
“Appointment of such service head on the Prosecutor general’s nomination is unacceptable for the following reason: first of all the Prosecutor General would have the control over the that body. To what extent can such control be efficient if he has a part in the appointment of the head of that body?” Harutyunyan says.
Heritage faction’s Zaruhi Postanjyan says: “Why should the Prosecutor General nominate the head of that service - he has nothing to do here. Or if the President is the one appointing the head of the service, then the authority to dismiss him should not be one of his functions, as the Constitution does not grant him such function. I think the president has more serious things to do other than appointing and dismissing a head of investigators or encouraging and penalizing service investigators.”
Another member of the same faction Styopa Safaryan sees a political subtext in developing such a draft law, connecting it to the coming presidential elections.
“By this we are handing the President a bludgeon to keep over officials’ heads and in the election processes make them act upon desires of the ruling top. This law will have utterly negative consequences in the judicial-legal systems,” Safaryan says.
The member of Orinats Yerkir (the Rule of Law) faction Mher Shahgeldyan declared that they would vote against the draft law.
“This draft law is leading us to the Stalin, Brezhnev times when every time a new investigation body was formed,” he says.
The idea of forming a special investigation group for officials seems absolutely obscure to Postanjyan.
“All are equal before the law. Who said that somebody has to be investigated by special investigators, and others not? If it at least was by the crime type I could somehow understand. But this way, this draft law does not define at all where that body will be standing in the state system of executive, legislative and judicial powers.”

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