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Both human rights advocates and lawyers, and the public at large regularly complain about the activities of the Special Investigation Service. According to the human rights advocate and Chairman of the Helsinki Association, Mikayel Danielyan, this public agency considered as an institution of punishment for officials fails to comply with their obligations imposed by the law. While the number of cases submitted to the Special Investigation Service in recent years is small enough, they argue that the Service fails to process their alarms.

The alert by the Ombudsman on the actions by investigator of actor Vardan Petrosyan’s case is ranged among the most recent applications submitted to the Special Investigation Service. The Ombudsman reported to the Service on the abuse of power by Hayk Hakobyan, the investigator of Vardan Petrosyan’s case. However, the Service reportedly failed to initiate a criminal case attributing its decision to the lack of any element of crime.

Vardan Petrosyan’s advocate Nicolay Baghdasaryan informed the Lragir.am that the Special Investigation Service failed to adopt a uniform approach to all similar cases. “The Special Investigation Service dismissed the case, but we appealed to a court of first instance to reverse the decision on dismissing the criminal case. I know that the investigator of another similar case faced charges. Hence, what is the underlying logic? While in one case charges are brought against the investigator, in another similar case, no charges are brought; we must understand the reason,” says Nikolay Baghdasaryan.

The Lragir.am made a written inquiry to the Special Investigation Service on the number of complaints received from RA citizens against the officials, the number of complaints processed, the number of criminal cases instituted and the number of cases filed to the court of law in the period of 2011-2013.

While the Press Secretary of the Special Investigation Service, Mikayel Aharonyan asked for some time to provide statistics, about a month later he mentioned in his written response that the Service was unable to provide such statistics.

In particular, the letter of the Press Secretary of the Special Investigation Service reads as follows: “Considering that the Special Investigation Service of the Republic of Armenia (like other investigative agencies of the RA) duly submits the detailed statistics on the progress, results and persons involved in cases closed or still in progress to the Information Center of the RA Police, you can apply to the Center for more complete and exhaustive information”.

“This institution operates under specific instructions and will do anything it is told to do,” Avetik Ishkhanyan, the Chairman of Helsinki Committee of Armenia informed Lragir.am. He also mentioned that he could recall no case of punishing any official by the Special Investigation Service based on applications by citizens.

According to Ishkhanyan, the Special Investigation Service and the General Prosecutor’s Office were supposed to be independent agencies. However, none of them appears independent in the Armenian reality; actually, they depend on the executive authority, especially the President.

“Given such situation, it is absurd to hope that either the Special Investigation Service or the General Prosecutor’s Office will perform an objective and impartial investigation into any case, especially one regarding officials. While the agencies above consider themselves as independent, actually, it is not the case. The procedure of assigning the heads of such agencies makes it all clear; they are assigned by the President. Therefore, all the matters under consideration of such agencies are arranged beforehand, and it is absurd to hope that the agencies can be independent under our political system,” argued Avetik Ishkhanyan.

The most recent application of the Helsinki Committee of Armenia to the Special Investigation Service concerned the Mashtots Park Case. Lately, the Committee has filed no applications as it had no big expectations, according to Ishkhanyan.

“We applied to the Special Investigation Service on the actions by the police during the Mashtots Park movement; however, the case was expectedly dismissed despite the unlawful actions by the police,” Ishkhanyan stated.

Another example of dismissing a criminal case by the Special Investigation Service is the application by Hayk Alumyan, the lawyer and advocate of the Budaghyan brothers, against Surik Khachatryan the former governor of Syunik region (marzpet). In his recent application to the Special Investigation Service, the advocate mentioned the media coverage of the illegal activities by Surik Khachatryan and his relatives and asked whether the Special Investigation Service investigated into such activities.

“Actually, I attempted to find out whether the Special Investigation Service considered such publications as crime reports. In response to my application, they first mentioned that some of the cases covered in the press had already been investigated under criminal cases. However, they failed to detail on such specific criminal cases and therefore could not refer to any case. Secondly, they mentioned that some of the media publications cover the period when Surik Khachatryan had no longer been a region governor, and the Service is therefore not competent to rule on the matter. Thirdly, some of the publications allegedly do not concern Surik Khachatryan personally, but rather his relatives. Therefore, the Special Investigation Service again has no competence’, Hayk Alumyan told Lragir.am.

He also expressed his highly negative assessment of the activities by the Special Investigation Service.

According to the human rights advocate, Mikayel Danielyan, the Special Investigation Service is not an independent agency, but rather a part of the General Prosecutor’s Office, and operates merely formally. “Upon receiving any applications, the Special Investigation Service allegedly starts investigation but actually does nothing and in response argues that it checked everything and found no illegal actions,” he said.

The human rights advocate also mentioned numerous cases when defendants declare in courts being subjected to torture and inhumane treatment at the police.

While the Special Investigation Service must investigate such complaints, it submits them to the same investigators working at the same police stations and well-aware of the tortures mentioned. We have often reported on tortures to the Special Investigation Service; however, the agency failed to fulfill its duties. The Service should change their residence and leave the house of the General Prosecutor’s Office; otherwise, it seems funny that this Service is called independent and locates in the house of the General Prosecutor’s Office,” stated Mikayel Danielyan.

“The efficiency of any public agency depends on appointment and dismissal procedures for its head. First of all, we should consider the independence of the agency based on the appointment and dismissal process. Nowadays, such process is not transparent and fails to meet the independence standards. Therefore, I do not view the Special Investigation Service as a structure that can be considered an independent body with independent decisions,” says Vardan Petrosyan’s advocate, Nikolay Baghdasaryan.

The article was written the HCA Vanadzor Project on Improving Mechanisms of Control over the RA Special Investigation Service, General Prosecutor’s Office and National Security Service as a Guarantee for Prevention of Human Rights Violations in Armenia’.

Source: http://www.lragir.am/index/arm/0/right/view/95156