Thursday, September 3 2020 12:25

ArmInfo. On the instructions of the RA Prosecutor General, abuses in the sphere of lease, sublease, alienation of property, which is communal and state  property, as well as giving these crimes an appropriate  criminal-legal assessment were analyzed.

According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the study covered the  period from January 1, 2019 to June 30 of this year. It was  established that during the first half of the year, 49 persons were  charged in criminal cases for the above crimes investigated in the  proceedings of the competent authorities of the RA, which is 32.5%  more than in 2019. During the specified 1.5 years, charges of various  corruption abuses were brought against the facts of violations in the  process of lease, sublease and alienation of real estate, in  particular, 34 former community leaders, including two ex-mayors of  Yerevan, 15 current community leaders, including the mayor Abovyan,  as well as one ex-minister of defense, ex-chairman of the SRC, former  deputy head of the SRC, former governor, head of the Cadastre unit  under the RA government, ex- president of the FFA, and so on.

From January 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020, 5 criminal cases against 9  persons in the proceedings for the above crimes were sent to the  court with an indictment. In the criminal case sent to the court in  the first half of this year, one civil claim in the amount of 39  million drams was brought, and in one unjustifiably terminated  criminal case, the prosecutor's office presented a civil suit in the  amount of 22 million drams.  In 2019, the damage inflicted on the  above crimes to the state based on completed materials and criminal  cases, as well as criminal cases sent to court with an indictment or  under preliminary investigation, amounted to about 956 million AMD,  of which during the preliminary investigation it was restored 70  million drams. Meanwhile, in the first half of 2020, on the basis of  materials and criminal cases sent to the court with an indictment, as  well as criminal cases of the above-mentioned nature that are at the  preliminary investigation stage, the damage caused to the state and  communities in the amount of AMD 1 billion 423 million was revealed,  from of which 112 million drams were recovered.

In one of the above criminal cases, sent to the court with an  indictment, a conviction was issued against 4 persons (the fact of  alienation of about 32 hectares of communal property through a formal  auction and falsification was confirmed). The Prosecutor General  presented to the Minister of Territorial Administration and  Infrastructures of Armenia a proposal to start the process of  returning these lands to the community. In addition, in one criminal  case, terminated due to the expiration of the statute of limitations,  the Department for the Protection of State Interests of the RA  Prosecutor General's Office in 2020 filed a lawsuit in court  demanding to invalidate the alienation process of 55.88 hectares of  land plots that are state property and alienated by formal auctions.

The RA General Prosecutor's Office came up with an initiative to  recognize, by filing claims for the protection of state interests,  numerous illegal transactions concerning communal and state property  invalid, and to return the property alienated by criminal schemes to  their legal owners, that is, the state and communities.