Since the reform of the criminal procedure in 2011, 95% of the criminal cases in Armenia are investigated by the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia, the remaining cases being handled by specialized units for tax and customs fraud, or investigations into public officials. The Committee has 6 investigators dedicated to cybercrime cases. The investigator files the criminal case with the prosecutor and leads the investigative procedure. The Committee does not dispose of a computer forensics laboratory but instead makes use of external expertise for the analysis of electronic evidence; where an expert evaluation is necessary, it is performed at specialised centres, in particular at the National Bureau of Expert Evaluation that is a state non-commercial centre of Armenia’s Academy of Sciences.
On 23 November 2015, the Investigative Committee signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Armenian Internet Service Providers (ISPs), among them ArmenTel, K-Telecom, UCom, and Orange Armenia, with the intention of reducing workload and saving human resources. The main goals of the Memorandum are to undertake effective joint measures for the transmission of court decisions and transcripts, and the development of mutual cooperation for introducing technical capabilities. Within this framework, parties agreed to communicate in a standardized manner (including cover letters and electronic signatures) and agreed to cooperate in solving issues as soon as possible in case of such procedures. Furthermore, the providers agreed to process electronic transmissions from the Investigative Committee within a short period of time and to execute expeditiously court decisions which are designated as “urgent”. A second objective of the Memorandum is to ensure that ISPs retain user traffic data for a set period of time, on a voluntary basis.