YEREVAN. – A person should be prosecuted, held accountable for a specific crime that poses a public threat; not otherwise. This was stated by the opposition Prosperous Armenia faction member Gevorg Petrosyan at the sitting of the National Assembly during the discussion of the package of bills on criminalization of criminal subculture, on November 19. He criticized this legislative initiative, saying the package was incomplete and needed revision.

For his part, majority My Step faction member Hovik Aghazaryan noted that such a subculture has started to develop in Armenia because of weak judicial and law enforcement systems which have not enjoyed public trust. As a result, according to the parliamentarian, people had to resort to “criminal authorities,” not law enforcement agencies, to solve their problems. In this regard, he urged, in addition to introducing these legislative changes, to accelerate the reform of the judiciary.