Crime cases surging in Armenia, chief prosecutor claims

Armenia's Prosecutor General Anna Vardapetyan has presented a report on the 2022 activities of the country's prosecutor's office.

Vardapetyan named some of the priorities of the Prosecutor's Office: the fight against corruption, protection of state interests, lawsuits presented to the Anti-Corruption Court to confiscate property obtained by criminal means, overdue criminal cases, or in other words, "protracted justice", Caliber.Az reports, quoting Armenian media.

The report consists of 11 main sections.

She presented the crime statistics for the year under review: 37,612 crimes were registered in Armenia in 2022 (30,245 in 2021), of which 21,604 were in Yerevan (16,438 in 2021). Compared to the previous year the number of crimes increased by 7,367, or 24.4 per cent. In 2022 an increase in minor, medium, grave and especially grave crimes was recorded.

Compared to 2021, there was an increase of 2,831, or 19.3 per cent (2021 - 14,629, 2022 - 17,460) for minor crimes, 2. 383, or 29.8 per cent (in 2021 - 7,988, in 2022 - 10,371), for grave crimes by 633, or 14.2 per cent (in 2021 - 4,447, in 2022 - 5,080) and for especially grave crimes by 530, or 151.4 per cent (in 2021 - 350, in 2022 - 880).

Regarding the increase in the number of especially grave crimes Vardapetyan stressed that 484 out of an increase of 530 cases are cases of sudden death, which previously were not considered crimes. Thus, in 2022, there were 396 especially grave crimes without counting sudden deaths, which is 46 or 13 per cent more than in the previous year.

The absolute majority of 37,612 crime cases, or 84.1 per cent, are petty (2,281 cases or 56.6 per cent) and medium (10,371 cases or 27.6 per cent). Serious crimes represent 2.3 per cent of the total number of crimes (1.2 per cent in 2021) and serious crimes 13.5 per cent (14.7 per cent in 2021).

The prosecutor general noted that crimes against the person, public security, public order, public health and economic activity increased in the reporting year.