Details

Seminar on sentencing held in Yerevan with the Judicial Academy of the Republic of Armenia

Published: May 15, 2017

Sergey Arakelyan (on the left), Director of the Armenian Judicial Academy; Alexander Fühling, a judge at the local court of Bonn

Sergey Arakelyan (on the left), Director of the Armenian Judicial Academy; Alexander Fühling,  a judge at the local court of Bonn

On 2 and 3 May 2017, a seminar on sentencing was held in partnership with the Judicial Academy of the Republic of Armenia in Yerevan. German experts contributing to the event for the IRZ were Alexander Fühling, a judge at the local court of Bonn, and Senior Public Prosecutor Wolf-Tilman Baumert, who is head of the department of economic crime and press officer at the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Wuppertal.

The “Sentencing” seminar covered the following sub-topics, amongst others:

  • The fundamentals and objectives of imposing sentences,
  • Points of reference for sentencing,
  • Sentencing facts and the ban on double counting,
  • Specific sentencing,
  • Review of sentencing by the appeals court,
  • Special cases of conduct after the crime: perpetrator-victim settlements and reparation for damages, as well as leniency programmes.

Release on licence and prosecution of offences carried out abroad and suspended sentences and provisions for special cases (particularities of provisions for economic, corruption and tax cases and for cases of drug-related and violent crimes) were also discussed.

The two German experts were able to report respectively from the perspective of the judge and the public prosecutor, thanks to their professional activities. This also corresponded with the composition of the seminar attendees, who were trainee judges and public prosecutors. A training course at the Judicial Academy is compulsory in Armenia for both of these professions. The selection of candidates followed by an examination takes place prior to this vocational training.

The Judicial Academy of the Republic of Armenia was represented at the event by its Director, Sergey Arakelyan, amongst others. The participants showed a great deal of interest and were extremely motivated. They asked a lot of questions, joined in with lively discussions and also made suggestions for other events. As this seminar is the first event of its kind to be held with the Armenian Judicial Academy, it would be appropriate to take up the participants’ suggestions and take them into account for future events.