ArmInfo.The Prosecutor's Office has charge former General Director of Air Armenia A. Avetisyan. It should be noted that the company went bankrupt in 2015.According to the press service of the General Prosecutor's Office of Armenia, Avetisyan was charged with non-payment of state duty and misappropriation of these amounts in the amount of more than 681 million drams.
Meanwhile, back in 2019, as a result of a trial in a court of first instance, the head of the company was fully acquitted due to the lack of corpus delicti. The court found that Avetisyan have not embezzled funds, and was not involved in criminal acts. Meanwhile, the appeal filed against this decision by the prosecutor's office was rejected by the Court of Appeal, which upheld the verdict of the court of first instance. The Court of Appeal, in turn, found that financial transactions are connected with a civil law dispute, failure to fulfill property obligations cannot be the basis for the application of a criminal procedural order.
This decision was appealed by the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia. By the decision of April 8 this year, it was fully satisfied. Having examined the case in the light of the previous legal positions on the crime of embezzlement, the Cassation Court of Armenia agreed with all the main grounds for the complaint of the Prosecutor's Office. The Court of Cassation considered that the fact that the airline was in a difficult financial situation and the failure to fulfill obligations to the state, as established by the prosecutor's office, could not be grounds for excluding the presence of signs of theft in the act of the defendant. The case was sent to court for a new trial.
In 2014 Air Armenia submitted an application to receive the status of the national air carrier of Armenia after the bankruptcy of Armavia. Air Armenia began to carry out air transportation in the fall of 2013, but a year later it stopped making regular flights, having accumulated large debts. Earlier it was reported that Air Armenia received $68.6 million from the East Prospect Faund investment fund in exchange for a 49% stake in the airline. However, these funds did not save the company. According to the company, it became a victim of the "open skies" regime signed by Armenia and failed to become competitive in the environment of large, including Russian, air carriers. The state did not interfere in the process.
After the bankruptcy, a liquidation commission was created in the company. A schedule for covering financial obligations was approved, but so far many creditors and counterparties have not received their funds.