Forecast: Law "On the return of illegally acquired property" will  deprive potential corrupt officials of the motivating factor

ArmInfo. The law "On the return of illegally acquired property" will deprive motivation of potential corrupt officials. Member of the parliamentary faction of the bloc, Heriknaz Tigranyan, expressed a similar opinion to  ArmInfo.

"The bill being discussed in parliament, providing for the return of  illegally acquired property, including on the basis of a court  sentence that does not contain charges, will be put on the agenda  this week. And lawyers who position themselves as opposition to the  current government, at the first mention of this idea described its  as an attempt by the authorities to create a new law, " she said.

The parliamentarian assesses such statements as another attempt to  mislead society. According to her, the existence of mechanisms for  the return of illegally acquired property without the announcement of  a guilty verdict is confirmed by international practice. Accordingly,  it is these mechanisms, in Tigranyan's view, that become additional  preventive tools to prevent corruption risks. If implemented and  applied, this law will simply deprive potential corrupt officials of  the motivating factor, since illegally acquired property will be  collected in favor of the state.

"It must be understood that the fight against corruption does not  mean overcrowded prisons with former corrupt officials. Or that it  should be limited to a few dozens of court cases. The criminal  proceedings in Armenia today do not allow reasonable people to wait  for the pace of investigation, allowing these cases to reach the  stage of forensic examination.In this light, today we have dozens of  criminal cases involving former senior officials still under  investigation, "she said.

In this light, according to parliamentarians, the number of  convictions in all such cases is in no way an indicator of the degree  of effectiveness of the fight against corruption in Armenia. In her  opinion, the fact that systemic corruption in the country is  beheaded, and the fight against corruption from the declarative level  has reached the real level, today no one doubts. At a recent meeting  with government law enforcement officials in the government, Prime  Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that the law enforcement agencies in  Armenia were led by traitors. Expressing dissatisfaction with the  pace of the fight against corruption, the prime minister announced  the need for "the return of funds stolen from the people and the  state."

"Despite the fact that within the framework of the investigation of  corruption cases after the" velvet revolution "150 million US dollars  were returned to the budget, due to the slowness of law enforcement  officials, the corrupt officials either manage to escape from Armenia  or hide or destroy evidence. Not only key witnesses, but and the  suspects and accused in a number of cases left Armenia, which led the  investigation to a standstill. All these facts compromise the law  enforcement system in general and the fight against corruption in  particular, "Pashinyan said.