2019 May 31

Anti-Corruption Daily

Anti-Corruption & News - May/31/2019: Gyumri officials arrested... SIS vs Cops... frmr HHK MP raided... Mil officers charged...frmr mayor arrested over shooting... Prosecutors vs Cassations judge... QP accuses BHK of abusing business powers... LHK vs QP.... Euro-2019... Oil & Gas... more inside
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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NSS has arrested several Gyumri municipality officials for allegedly taking bribes in exchange for allowing an illegal construction to proceed. A high ranking official and his aide are charged with 3 felonies.

https://armtimes.com/hy/article/162778

The Special Investigative Service has reviewed the recent report by SOC (State Oversight Committee) which stated that they found license plate purchasing contract violations done by the police, and concluded that the SOC was correct. Felony investigation is launched.

https://factor.am/156120.html

The police has raided properties belonging to the brother of former HHK Transport Minister Gagik Beglaryan. His brother was also a HHK MP. The raids are about the North-South highway project construction fraud recently uncovered by the authorities.

https://hetq.am/hy/article/104217

Several military officers have been arrested for stealing fuel from 11 military vehicles and replacing it with water, rendering them inoperable. The incident happened a while ago. https://armtimes.com/hy/article/162770

NSS has arrested 2 people, including the former mayor of Qarvachar, Artsakh, in connection with yesterday's shootings towards Artsakh presidential candidate and war hero Samvel Babayan's allies' cars. Babayan blamed another Artsakh presidential candidate for it. However, the NSS said it was a financial dispute between the groups. Several other participants are viewed as suspects.

Babayan insists he doesn't have financial disputes with the suspects, and it was a political attack in which over 50 people are involved from the other side.

The investigators insist it was a personal dispute between Babayan's team and the other side's team. The investigators are examining the possibility that the real target of the shooting was one of Babayan's team members, who the shooters believed was in one of the cars; the shooters had personal issues with this man, according to the theory.

https://armtimes.com/hy/article/162769 - - https://armtimes.com/hy/article/162795 --- https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/162825 --- https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/162837

Prosecutors are challenging the recent Cassations verdict that freed Kocharyan. They have asked the Cassations chief judge Vazgen Rshtuni to recuse himself from the case.

Prosecutors say the judge is biased and would take upon the case while already having formed an opinion, because earlier the judge gave an interview to a media outlet in which he said he agreed with the Cassations verdict which freed Kocharyan.

Prosecutors don't know on which grounds the case was assigned to judge Rshtuni.

https://armtimes.com/hy/article/162782

President Sarkissian has nominated Vahe Grigoryan for Constitutional Court seat, after another candidate was rejected few days ago. Grigoryan has a lengthy legal record and is currently a lawyer representing some of March 1st victims.

https://armtimes.com/hy/article/162784

Kotayk governor Romanos Petrosyan says BHK party is using its business influence to force its employees not to support QP, under threats of being fired.

Abovyan city will soon hold municipality elections. Abovyan is BHK chief Gagik Tsarukyan's stronghold, he is from there. The governor received alarming reports about BHK MP Edward Babayan who is Tsarukyan's chief bodyguard (recently convicted of beating a man), who is also the municipality elections BHK candidate's office manager. According to the complaints, the MP Babayan fired a man working at Tsarukyan's taxi company, because someone saw the man near a QP office. The governor says the man was not providing QP a political help against BHK.

Other reports state that Tsarukyan's Multi-Group business workers are under a pressure and monitoring to make sure they don't participate in QP rallies.

The elections will be held in June 9th.

https://armtimes.com/hy/article/162798

Prosecutors continue to bust water use monitoring and distribution firms for fraud. 11 companies were busted with 3bln in damages in 2018-2019.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/976790.html

At the request of dozens of MP and PM Pashinyan, the Parliament created two committees to investigate ammo shortage and other reported issues around April 2016 battles, and to investigate how well the water monitoring and distribution companies work in provinces.

https://armtimes.com/hy/article/162811 - - https://armtimes.com/hy/article/162810

Embattled Yerevan State University chief recently resigned, months after a scandal which begun when the SOC discovered large scale corruption and bribery at the institute. The chief was also accused of providing political aid to the previous Armenian government.

LHK chief Edmon Marukyan criticized QP, accusing it of politicizing the University and appointing QP MP as one of University board members.

That QP MP gave a speech today. Said he was nominated before he became a QP MP, and he was appointed due to his credentials in the education field. He noted that the new temporary university chief was appointed by the union of professors at the University, and not by the government.

In a stunt, the MP brought with him a glass of plain yogurt to prevent Marukyan from spreading his "toxicity" in the Parliament. He said Marukyan was losing his "classic" status. (The term "classic" became a meme after during a political debate with BHK Tsarukyan, Marukyan referred to himself as a classic politician).

Edmon Marukyan responded saying the MP has to work hard to become classic like him.

Video https://factor.am/155850.html ---- http://panarmenian.net/m/arm/news/269402

The Nature Ministry gave a green light for a Canadian company AGAPE to begin examining 6 Kapan geolocations to check the existence of oil and gas. The checks will be prohibited in certain areas. In the event of the research company finding traces of oil and gas, they'll have to first go through an investigation by a nature impact assessment company to make sure the digging won't harm the surroundings.

https://hetq.am/hy/article/104230

Tourism from China grew 60% in 2018 vs 2017. In 1Q19 vs 1Q18 it grew by 40% so far. The recent bilateral decision to remove visa requirement can be a boost. Most Chinese tourists visit Armenia for 3 days as part of a regional travel package. They like historical monuments like Garni, Geghard etc.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/976729.html

Czech Republic becomes the 14th state to ratify the EU-Armenia comprehensive cooperation agreement.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/162822

Update on the gambling bill: it will require bookmaker visitors to be at least 21. Wives can get a court order to prohibit the husbands from going to gambling centers and wasting the family resources. Cash transactions will be limited.

Partial source http://panarmenian.net/m/arm/news/269427

Roboserj activists are protesting outside of George Sonos's Open Society office. They say they'll stay there until arrested. They're working with various politicians to ban the organization from Armenia. The Open Society released a statement accusing the small group of trying to create a division in Armenia, and spreading of "misinformation" about the organization.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/976822.html --- https://factor.am/156099.html

(Press here to change your gender 🍑 )

Europe will help to build 30kW solar panels in Aparan. The city has 290 sunny days per year and is a good candidate. Artik will have ~800kW station. It'll sell electricity to the local grid. Auctions will be held to pick the company that will build them.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/976829.html

100 children are diagnosed with cancer annually. Half of the cases have malignancy in blood.

70% of children become completely cancer-free after the treatment. Unfortunately, people often go to doctor when the cancer is already Stage 3 and beyond. Doctors advise parents to take their kids for annual or bi-annual health checkup. All children receive the treatment for free, according to a field worker, often with the help of charity foundations such as City of Smiles.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/976889.html

Euro-2019 youth soccer championship will be held in Armenia this July. UEFA organized the drawings. Armenia is in the same group with Spain, Italy and Portugal. National team players Heno Mkhitaryan and Marcos Pizzelli participated in the group drawing.

https://armtimes.com/hy/article/162775 - - https://armtimes.com/hy/article/162796

In the end, Baku and UEFA decided to let the local residents enter and watch the Chelsea-Arsenal for free, to prevent empty tribunes. Nonetheless, there were thousands of empty seats.

Witnesses say that half an hour after the game begun, the doors opened for free. Some people were handed over Arsenal flags upon entering. UEFA was against this decision and will launch an investigation.

Only 5'500 Arsenal and Chelsea fans went to watch the game. The stadium holds around 70'000. The commentators of the match also expressed their displeasure about the general atmosphere. There was a sense that the game was a less important match and not a finale.

The European news outlets have noted that this stadium is set to host several Euro-2020 matches next year (lmao).

Photos https://armtimes.com/hy/article/162816

WATCH: Bears kept in captivity rescued and released into the wilderness.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/162836

Pashinyan, president Sarkisian and OP are taking a 2 day vacation. Coincidence? 🤔 OP a shill? 🤔

http://panarmenian.net/m/arm/news/269389 - - http://panarmenian.net/m/arm/news/269395

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Link to original report: https://old.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/bvbxw9/anticorruption_news_may312019_gyumri_officials/