Thursday, May 7 2020 16:24

ArmInfo.The external factor is still quite significant in the ongoing struggle against  manifestations of systemic corruption in Armenia or in bringing those  responsible to justice, Head of the Helsinki Civil Assembly Vanadzor  Office Artur Sakunts expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.

"The fact is that corruption in Armenia was by no means only on  national level. It manifested itself, inter alia, in the form of  organized crime at the international level. Correspondingly, today's  corrupt officials are naturally receiving outside support from those  with whom "deeds" were done in the past. Those, with whom they had  common interests in the same corruption system. It is clear that this  creates certain difficulties both in the investigation and in  prosecuting the participants in such crimes, "he stressed.

Sakunts noted that the above-mentioned people today have serious  support from various bodies of the countries, where they are hiding  from justice today. Thanks to this support, they calmly live, work  and even teach there. Accordingly, the solution of purely legal  problems related to these people lies in a completely different,  undesirable for Armenia framework, automatically presuming certain  political restrictions.

According to the human rights activist, the escape of the actual  owner of Ucom-Gurgen Khachatryan, other "formers" from the  investigation and from criminal liability evidences that former  officials have not only financial resources, but also connections,  expressed in information leaks and ineffective work of investigative  and law enforcement agencies.  "I have no idea how Khachatryan could  have escaped from the country under quarantined borders. Of course,  through the opportunities available to him and his entourage, which I  have already mentioned. In my opinion, the essence, the basis of the  problem lies in obvious slowness of the work of our law enforcement  agencies, in many cases such slowness is deliberate. Khachatryan  openly stated that he was not going to be arrested even before the  decision on his arrest was made. The leak of information is simply  obvious. Everything else are consequences", the human rights activist  summarized.

On April 4, the son of the former head of the State Revenue Committee  and the Ministry of Finance Gagik Khachatryan, Gurgen Khachatryan  accused of complicity in transferring a bribe on an especially large  scale, was put on the wanted list. Earlier, he was charged, and the  court chose arrest as a preventive measure. Khachatryan, having  violated the order on the measure of restraint - a written  undertaking not to leave the place, escaped the investigation.