Serious Dispute Between Investigative Committee and Prosecutor General Over Pregnant Woman's Accident

The newspaper "Zhoghovurd" reports that the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor General's Office have engaged in a serious dispute. The cause of the conflict is the incident involving a police vehicle escorting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan that resulted in the death of a young woman. The Prosecutor's Office issued instructions that the Investigative Committee has decided not to follow.

As known, on April 29, 2022, the prosecuting authority decided not to initiate criminal proceedings against police Major A. Navasaki, who was involved in the accident, on the grounds of absence of an offense under the Criminal Code of Armenia. Furthermore, charges were brought against him under Article 242, part 2 of the Criminal Code (Violation of traffic or vehicle operation rules leading to death through negligence). Following this decision, a conflict arose within the law enforcement system.

The supervising prosecutor demanded that the Investigative Committee revoke these decisions, examine the circumstances of the driver leaving the scene, and discuss the issue of arrest. This instruction did not sit well with the Committee, leading to heated discussions with the Prosecutor's Office, resulting in objections that were rejected by the Prosecutor's Office.

It is not ruled out that the dispute between the two law enforcement agencies may escalate to the point where the criminal case is forwarded to the National Security Service (NSS). In other words, the only hope for the prosecutor to enforce his directives now lies with the NSS, as Head of the Anti-Corruption Committee Sasun Khachatryan and Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan have internal disagreements.

“Zhoghovurd” newspaper has repeatedly addressed this issue, and now the Investigative Committee has started to rebel against the prosecutor's instructions, while this is a strict legislative requirement.

For more details, see today’s edition of the newspaper.