Edgar Arsenyan, Head of the Department of Supervision over Legality of Pre-trial Proceedings in the RA Anti-Corruption Committee of the Prosecutor General’s Office represented the work of the Working Group (from August 23, 2023 until September 15 and as of 14:00 of that day) established on the basis of the order of the RA Prosecutor General during the press conference at the Central Electoral Commission.

Edgar Arsenyan particularly stated the following.

Before summerising the results of the monitoring carried out from 08:00 until 14:00 of the election day I would like to briefly inform about the works carried out by the Working Group established on the basis of the Prosecutor General’s order before the election of the Council of Elders of the city of Yerevan.

 The aim of the Working Group was to register, record, examine and chack the publications of the mass media or social networks as well as applications and reports on the alleged election crimes, submition thereof pursuant to their subordination, discuission of the reports  and  increase of the effectiveness of prosecutorial supervision over the preliminary investigation of the proceedings initiated on the basis thereof. 

Where the reports on the alleged crimes related to the election process contained abstract, general and vague information, the RA Prosecutor General gave an assignment to the Working Group on sending similar reports to the relevant Territorial Divisions of the Police and on undertaking verification actions based thereon. 

In this context the applications, complaints and reports regarding Articles 218-221 and 231-232 of the Criminal Code were submitted to the competent subdivision of the Anti-corruption Committee for examining in the order provided for by the “Law on criminal intelligence activity".

Where the report contained sufficient information on the crime from the beginning and that information was obtained as a result of verification actions undertaken on the basis of the report, the report shall immediately be readdressed to the competent investigative authority.

The Prosecutor General ordered to ensure the implementation of evidentiary and other procedural actions in the scope of the preliminary examination of the initiated criminal proceedings.

During the election campainge, that is from August 23, 2023 until September 15, the Working Group examined 17 publications, calls and 17 reports on the alleged crime.

1. 6 criminal proceedings were initiated on the basis of the reports on alleged crimes, among them:

• 4 on the cases related to compeling to conduct election campaigne or otherwise prohibiting the process of conducting election campaigne.
• 1 on the case related to compeling to participate in the lawful or unlawful assembly by the threat of using violence against the person or his/her close relative or relatives, destructing, damaging or taking of property or blackmail as well as by the way of materially interesting them for participating or refusing to participate in the assembly.
• 1 on the case related to the obstructing the exercise of suffrage or exercise of the rights and obligations of the persons participating in the works of the electoral commissions or in the election.

2. 1 of the reports on the alleged crime was submitted to the Investigative Department of Yerevan of the RA Investigative Committee for the purpose of initiating a criminal proceedings.
3. 1 report related to receiving fees for election poster installation service, however failing to install them.
4. No protocole was drawn up on the basis of 1 report on the alleged crime regarding the violation of the prohibition of being engaged in the philantrophy during election.
5. 7 calls, applications and reports were submitted to the relevant territorial subdivisions of the Police, for the purpose of performing verification actions regarding the information contained therein.

From the abovementioned 7 cases;

• 5 cases were on compeling to participate in the lawful or unlawful assembly by the threat of using violence against the person or his/her close relative or relatives, destructing, damaging or taking of property or blackmail as well as by the way of materially interesting them for participating or refusing to participate in the assembly. 
• 1 case was about the violation of the prohibitin of being engaged in the philantrophy during the election by one of the parties.
• 1 case was about the violation of the order of drawing up the list of electors or providing it to citizens and parties or publicating them.

6. Besides that, 2 reports regarding the violation of the prohibition to be engaged in the philantrophy during election were submitted to the Anti-corruption committee for the purpose of chacking them with the relative operative-intelligence measures.

Today until 14:00, the Working Group examined 4 cases containing reports on the alleged crimes.

• 2 reports on the alleged crime was submitted to the competent subdivisions of the Investigative Committee. One of them was about casting multiple votes or voting instead of another person and the other was on another offence.  

• 2 reports from the received 4 calls were submitted to the copetant subdivisions of the Police for for the purpose of performing verification actions regarding the information contained therein. They were on the compeling to participate in the assembly.