ArmInfo. Armenia will expand the circle of officials whose property will be subject to verification by the Prosecutor General's Office for legality. This was stated on May 5 at a government meeting by Deputy Minister of Justice Karen Andreasyan, presenting a draft amendment to the law "On confiscation of property of illegal origin."
According to him, in a short period of application of the legislative act (the system has been implemented since September 2020), the Prosecutor General's Office has done a lot of work. As a result of this work, a number of gaps and omissions were identified, the correction of which will make the initiative more effective, the minister said.
Thus, within the framework of the proposed project, it is proposed to expand the circle of persons in respect of whom property checks will be carried out. The current regulations allow checking the property of persons holding political, administrative, autonomous and discretionary positions (prime ministers, vice- premiers, ministers, Ombudsman, judges). Now the Prosecutor General's Office will be able to check the property of officials declaring their property (middle link).
The next innovation concerns the change in the extension of the investigation period - 3 years in any case, instead of the current 2 + 1 (under certain conditions).
The Prosecutor General's Office is also given the opportunity, on its own initiative, to start an investigation if there is a suspicion of the illegality of the acquired property of an official or a person affiliated with himher.
The changes also apply to property valuation. If there are problems with the assessment of the market value of the property, an amount equal to the purchase price of this property will be subject to confiscation.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that society is not satisfied with the results of the work done. Many cases are suspended because the law was challenged by the opposition in the Constitutional Court, he said.
The Prosecutor General of the Republic Artur Davtyan, in turn, noted that only in the first 10 days from the moment the law came into force, proceedings were opened against 200 people, and it is necessary to check the transactions made by them for 10 years, and sometimes more.
At the moment, 8 lawsuits have already been filed in court for a total of 42 billion drams. There is already the first initiative of a settlement agreement, which is also provided for by law. "I think this is a good signal to others that such a solution is preferable," Artur Davtyan emphasized.
