President Serzh Sargsyan convened a consultation on issues related to the court system.

Serzh Sargsyan on Dec. 22 convened a consultation on issues related to the court system.

Among participants were President of the RA Constitutional Court Gagik Harutyunyan, RA Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan, Head of the RA National Security Service Gorik Hakobyan, RA Police Chief Vladimir Gasparyan, Head of the RA Court of Appeals Arman Mkrtumyan, RA Minister of Justice Hrair Tovmasyan and Head of the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs David Harutyunyan.

The consultation marked the end of the series of meetings devoted to issues related to the court system in 2011.

"You and I have mentioned several times that the reforms in this sphere should increase our society's confidence in the system. It seems as though we haven't had any disagreements. But public confidence is not imaginary. It is countable. We can study and draw conclusions.

Unfortunately, I must say that the results are unpleasant. We can't register serious changes in this sphere. The grounds for this evaluation are not only your reports, but also the results of studies that I had assigned," Serzh Sargsyan said.

According to Sargsyan, the flaws and violations simply discredit the main essence of criminal justice.

"There are phenomena that are making the issue become structural. We have many things to introduce and have to get involved in those issues. I would also like to know what kind of practical measures the four-year plan for legal and judicial reforms for 2012-2016 envisage to prevent or to rule out such phenomena," Serzh Sargsyan said.

He proposed to examine investigators, prosecutors and judges that have taken or confirmed illegitimate decisions in order to solve the issue of bringing them to justice and to send the materials to the RA Special Investigative Service, if attributes of a criminal act are revealed. 

Serzh Sargsyan proposed to organize parliamentary hearings in relation to the plan of judicial reforms.