YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, NOYAN TAPAN. A sitting of the coordinating council of prosecutors general of the CIS member states was held in Yerevan on October 9. At the suggestion of the prosecutor general of the RA Aghvan Hovsepian, the issue of fight against human trafficking was also put on the agenda. During the press conference convened at the end of the sitting, he stated that a decision was made to develop a joint program on exchange of experience, improvement of the legislation and creation of a similar practice. The prosecutor general of the Russian Federation Yuri Chayka said that the cooperation of CIS countries in the fight against organized crime is quite efficient, human rights protection issues are also "solved fundamentally", and no significant complaints have been received from human rights organizations and European social structures. In response to the question about whether there has been a disclosed murder of an Armenian in Russia, he replied: "We do not classify victims by nationality." He pointed out the murders of the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Russia Andrey Kozlov and the reporter Anna Politkovskaya as examples of disclosed crimes. According to Y. Chayka, the investigation into the case of attempted murder of deputy of the RA National Assembly Tigran Arzakantsian in Moscow is under control of the RF prosecutor general's office, considerable work has been done but so far without results. In connection with the case of the former Armenian foreign minister Alexander Arzumanian accused of money laundering, he noted that an investigation is being conducted into the case. A. Hovsepian added that detailed information on this case will be received soon and passed to the mass media. The prosecutor general of Georgia Kakha Koberidze said that the investigation into the case of the former defence minister Irakli Okruashvili is continuing, with explanations to be provided after its completion. As for the death of the former prime minister Zurab Zhvania, he said that "there are various versions but the investigators do not have evidence to refute the version of nonviolent death." The delegations of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan headed by the prosecutors general of these countries took part in the sitting of the coordinating council. The delegations of Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Tukmenistan (which has the observer status) were headed by their deputy prosecutors general. The Azerbaijani delegation did not participate in the sitting, even though Aghvan Hovsepian had sent an invitation to the prosecutor general of Azerbaijan Karalov.

---