My Step Proposes Allowing Arrest Without Cause

The ruling faction of the National Assembly proposes to allow an individual to be arrested without cause. The proposal for a corresponding amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code was presented today from the National Assembly podium by My Step faction member Nikolay Baghdasaryan.

He stated that if a bloodied person with a knife is found at the scene of a murder, but they are not attempting to flee, current laws do not grant law enforcement the right to arrest that person. 'According to the existing Criminal Procedure Code, if the individual does not flee from the scene, they cannot be arrested. We have numerous cases where the courts have recognized arrest decisions as unlawful on this basis. To regulate this issue, we have proposed an amendment to abandon the objectives of arrest defined in Article 128, which outlines the concept of arrest,' said Baghdasaryan.

However, considering the specifics of this new type of arrest, the authors of the bill propose to establish a 36-hour regime instead of the currently prevailing 72 hours. The representative of the Armenian government and Deputy Minister of Justice Armen Hovhannisyan noted that the government supports the proposed legal regulation.