Two two- day seminars on “Selected issues of new Criminal (CC) and Criminal Procedure Codes (CPC) of Armenia” were organised for two groups of 48 prosecutors of Armenia on 25-26 January and on 22-23 February in the Justice Academy in Yerevan. During the first half of the seminars, the participants learnt about the principles of criminal law and its retrospectivity that would significantly help them to correctly classify the crimes either under the current or new CC when the later enters into force in July 2022. The prosecutors also benefited from the detailed discussion on the circumstances excluding responsibility and grounds for release from criminal liability and punishment. Second day of the events was devoted to the selected issues of the new CPC. Particularly, in the context of compulsory measures, the prosecutors acquired skills on the new alternative measures to detention such as house arrest and administrative supervision as well as discussed ground for imposing arrest and detention as last measure of restrain. Different types of court hearings such as preliminary, principal and supplementary were discussed as well. Concrete examples and short case-studies were prepared for each topic of two seminars that greatly facilitated the communication among the participants and the trainer.

The seminars were opened by Gayane Hovhannisyan, Senior Project Officer, Council of Europe Office in Yerevan. They were conducted by Arsen Nikoghosyan, CoE national consultant.

The seminars were organised in cooperation with the Justice Academy of Armenia within the framework of the Project “Supporting the criminal justice reform and harmonising the application of the European standards in Armenia" funded within the European Union and Council of Europe Partnership for Good Governance.