Criminal Appeals to be Reviewed Only through Written Procedure, Minister

Criminal appeals will be reviewed only through a written procedure. The project on making relevant amendments to the Republic of Armenia’s Criminal Procedure Code was approved during today’s meeting of the government.

The project establishes a general regulation stating that, as a rule, criminal appeals will be reviewed in a written procedure. This was announced by Justice Minister Suren Papikyan.

“There will, of course, be exceptions where it will be necessary to apply an oral procedure, however, in each case, the court must justify why it deviated from the general rule. This will lead to a reduction in the court's workload and a more efficient examination of appeals,” said the minister.

He noted that the criminal appellate proceedings should last 6 months, which can only be extended once for a duration of 4 months by a justified decision of the court.

In Armenia, individuals over the age of 35 can also become police officers.