One of the defendants in the North-South case escaped from the  investigation on another person`s passport

ArmInfo.  In the case of abuse  during the construction of the North- South highway, one of the  accused has illegally crossed the border.

According to the Prosecutor General's Office, during the  investigation it was established that a citizen of the Republic of  Northern Macedonia, B. D., who was brought in as an accused under  paragraph 1 of part 3 of Article 178 of the RA Criminal Code, being  aware of the ban on crossing the border of the Republic of Armenia,  in September 2019 created an organized group composed of citizens of  Macedonia, Bulgaria and Ukraine to solve this problem. The ultimate  goal was B. D.'s departure from Armenia on the passport of another  citizen of Macedonia, Z.C. . At the same time, G. G., an employee of  the border control department of Zvartnots International Airport,  having shown an unfair and negligent attitude to the service, did not  find out the authenticity of the passport, did not identify the  person by photograph, and instead put a stamp permitting the crossing  of the state border of Armenia. In order Z. S. himself could return  to his homeland, his passport was brought to Armenia in October by  one of the members of the group, but Z. S. to leave the did not  manage to cross the border with it, because the passport control  employees at the airport drew attention to the lack of a stamp of  entry.

Citizen Z. S. has been charged under article 326 and part 2 of  article 329 of the RA Criminal Code; in his regard, arrest was chosen  as a preventive measure. Employee of the G.G. is charged  under part 1 of Article 315 of the RA Criminal Code; a recognizance  not to leave was chosen as a measure of restraint.  This episode was  set aside in a separate proceeding, the preliminary investigation was  completed, the criminal case with the indictment was sent to the  court.

Earlier it was reported that former senior officials were involved in  abuses in the construction of the North- South highway. According to  the preliminary investigation, by committing a number of official  crimes, lack of control over the implementation of the construction  program, etc.,, $ 300 million of credit and budget funds were spent  inefficiently. Numerous tax evasion schemes, embezzlement and so on  were also established. At the same time, dozens of major contractors  and subcontractors, local and foreign commercial organizations  affiliated with them, as well as officials and their relatives, were  involved in criminal schemes. Total damage is estimated at 23.7  billion drams.