2018 August 4

Anti-Corruption Daily

Anti-Corruption 8/4/2018: 1) Health Ministry investigates a non-transparent auction which resulted in clinic being privatized for 4x less the market value 2) Gyumri residents report social security workers for demanding millions in bribes for 10 years 3) March 1st investigator interview (MORE BELOW)
by ar_david_hh

Disclaimer: All the accused are innocent until proven guilty by the court of law, even if they may sound as being guilty. Currency in Armenian Drams ֏ unless specified otherwise.

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Good pre-Sunday everyone!

Chief investigator behind Kocharyan's prosecution gave an interview where he explained the situation, and de-classified some parts of Order 0038. The journalist brought up Kocharyan's defense team's point of view to press on some of the claims. Interesting 40 minute conversation. Take it away.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWOC8kOg5bU

... few parts. Prosecutor says 1700 bullets were shot on March 1st. Around 300 weren't positively identified because they weren't shot by the police and the bullets weren't "licensed and recorded" anywhere. This is in line with Order 0038 information which instructed the creation of highly skilled military units. The bullets must have been shot by them, because the regular police ammo can be identified. Kocharyan insists that the military wasn't used, but evidence points otherwise, according to the investigator. The 0038 also states that the military wasn't placed in barracks to keep them away from interfering in politics, as Kocharyan defense claims, but to actually use them. According to the order, it was instructed to create groups consisted of "highly skilled soldiers who can act in tough environments with a high morale", which shows that they were meant to be used, and not kept away. There is also material evidence of soldiers being in Yerevan. He says that these units were given "clean" weapons which were later collected and destroyed to remove evidence in the past 10 years. He says this last part will be hard to prove in court because the evidence was systematically destroyed.

.... Kocharyan's lawyer criticizes this interview. Says there are discrepancies in prosecutor's story, and this is a selective prosecution because Levon Ter-Petrosyan was also calling for the military to intervene, therefor it's unfair for only Kocharyan to be charged with this. Also says Kocharyan himself was misinformed by his own officials https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSzQHzCiigM

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https://youtu.be/Ve8sFlfIfvo?t=131

... (What the lawyer obviously doesn't say is that Ter Petrosyan, although he did call for the military to join the protesters on 2008, had no actual legal authority over them, didn't sign any orders, received no such army support, didn't break the Constitution, because there is no law prohibiting ordinary civilians [which is what Petrosyan was] to call for a military to join the protests. Whereas Kocharyan and his team were the authority and signed an actual order involving the military. A citizen can say anything they want, but the officials can't do anything they want, according to the Constitution.)

Clean up on isle Gyumri! 9 residents of Gyumri contacted the police to report corruption in social security department. The administrator and few others allegedly demanded million in bribes between 2008-2018 in exchange for allowing low income residents to be in the list of aid recipients https://www.a1plus.am/1635956.html

There is a criminal investigation around Gyumri state university administrator for embezzlement and corruption. One more former administrator is now involved in the case. She is HHK MP Farmanyan's sister. Police sends a detention warrant in-absentia www.hraparak.am/posts/5b65b60d3c583106c6c879a9/պատգամավորի-քրոջը-բերման-կենթարկեն

Health Ministry is investigating an auctioning deal. A clinic in Kanaker-Zeytun was privatized through a possibly illegal "purposely closed" auction, which resulted in the purchase price being 4 times lower than the real value of the property https://youtu.be/Ve8sFlfIfvo?t=466

Ministry of Emergency Situations will build more beach-guard outposts along the public shore of lake Sevan https://news.am/arm/news/465062.html

The new acting director of All-Armenia Fund continues to show the projects built by the donor's money. https://youtu.be/Ve8sFlfIfvo?t=864

Arsen Harutyunyan wins gold medal in European youth wrestling championship https://armenpress.am/arm/news/942814/

"Gambler", a book dedicated to late Kirk Kerkoryan and his work, is published. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9ztjNszcvM

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All the accused, including Rob, are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

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Link to original report and comments: https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/94m756/anticorruption_842018_1_health_ministry/