2019 September 30

Anti-Corruption Daily

Anti-Corruption & News - Sep/30/19 :: Murder invstg. involving Kocharyan bodyguard to re-open :: Judge harassed :: frmr Justice Ministry official charged :: Parliament to invstg property takeaways :: frmr Yerevan mayor charged :: Mayor charged :: Elections :: Foreign stuff :: Night clubs :: Farmers
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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The state has assigned a bodyguard to judge Anna Danibekyan, who recently ruled that Kocharyan should remain in jail. On Friday night, two Kocharyan supporters followed the judge for 10 minutes while she was walking to a building, while repeatedly asking questions with derogatory implications. They uploaded the video live on social media. Bodyguards could also be assigned to the judge's family members and the house.

The pair kept asking the judge if she is the type who cries like a dog under someone's else door while awaiting for orders. The term was recently used by Kocharyan's lawyer during the recently trial, in which the judge asked them not to be disrespectful to court.

The Supreme Court Council has condemned the incident and called a pressure or a psychological humiliation towards the judge unacceptable. Justice Minister condemned the behavior.

The police was involved after the judge contacted the security upon entering the building and leaving the followers behind.

The next day, one of them named Narek Mutafyan was arrested and charged with violating Code 343.3. The second one Sargis Ohanjanyan was arrested shortly afterwards. The court approved their arrest warrant.

Code 343.3 envisions anywhere between 200x minimum wage fine to 3 months in jail:

Դատարանի նկատմամբ անհարգալից վերաբերմունքը, որը դրսևորվել է պաշտոնեական լիազորությունների իրականացման առնչությամբ դատավորին վիրավորելով՝ պատժվում է տուգանքով՝ նվազագույն աշխատավարձի երկուհարյուրապատիկից հինգհարյուրապատիկի չափով, կամ կալանքով՝ երկուսից երեք ամիս ժամկետով:

After the incident, former regime's representatives begun to refer the two as "political prisoners". Former Artsakh HRO Ruben Melikyan drew parallels between this September incident, and another July incident involving a Constitutional Court judge. He made the argument that "anti-Kocharyan protesters weren't arrested in July, while pro-Kocharyan protesters were arrested in September, therefore the pro-Kocharyan protesters are political prisoners".

What Melkumyan didn't mention are the 4 important details that are different about the July and September incidents:

1) September protesters found, followed and harassed the judge because of a specific verdict she made. In contrast, July crowd were holding a legal general-purpose protest outside of the Court building to show their distrust towards the judicial system.

2) The July judge made the decision to approach and walk through the angry crowd, while it was reasonable to expect that it would cause a confrontation with the crowd. In contrast, the September judge was approached and followed by the two.

3) The July judge didn't take legal action against the protesters. The September judge immediately asked the police to intervene.

4) The July judge recently said she has never been pressured, and that she isn't the type of person who can be pressured. The September judge felt pressured and asked the police to intervene upon entering the building.

This isn't the first time a Kocharyan trial judge is being pressured. Few months earlier, during the Appeals trial, Kocharyan threatened that anyone involved with the trial will answer for it harshly.

Encounter https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/170421

Moment of arrest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWlGjBAkdJk

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/170422

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/170435

Jus.Min. https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/170423

SUpreme Court https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/170424

343.3 https://www.arlis.am/documentview.aspx?docid=69646

Court warrant https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/170466

Former HRO https://news.am/arm/news/536114.html

July incident https://youtu.be/RKDW-wZntng?t=35

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You remember the story of "Privet Rob". Kocharyan's bodyguards tortured and killed a man in Paplavok cafe's toilet for greeting Kocharyan with "privet rob". A British tourist Steven Newton witnessed the beating and murder, and sent a letter to the court, but the latter ignored it. The witness recently came forward again.

Prosecutors recently received Newton's statement and pulled the 2001 case from the archive for a review. The archive says that an altercation happened between the victim Poghos Poghosyan and the bodyguard, after which the victim allegedly fell and hit his head on a toilet edge, resulting in death. Kochrayan's bodyguard then received a 1 year probation in 2002.

The ignored witness evidence, however, contradicts Kocharyan's prosecutor's conclusion that the death was an accident. It indicates a heavier crime.

The prosecutors have asked the investigators to launch a new examination. The statue of limitations doesn't apply to murder cases.

https://armtimes.com/hy/article/170542

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Parliament speaker Mirzoyan has scheduled a session to discuss the previous regime's land and property takeaway practices in Northern boulevard and Cascade areas.

The memo says that beginning Nov-5-2000, a practice of unfair land appropriation begun to happen, during which the system that was meant to evaluate the property price and compensation wasn't used properly. Some residents had their properties taken away without a fair compensation. This had prompted human rights institutes to condemn the govt actions.

https://armtimes.com/hy/article/170531

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Former Yerevan mayor Yervand Zakharyan and another high ranking officials from architecture department are officially charged with abuse of power in the case of illegal giveaway of parts of a park to Kocharyan's favorite "Golden Palace" hotel.

SIS says:

In 2008 the suspects abused their powers to illegally take 10,000 m2 protected green land away from Hakhtanak Zbosaygi (Victory Park) to give it to Golden Palace hotel for only 164mln. Later, the Golden Palace hotel got paid 12bln for the land.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/170434

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Constitutional Court chief Hrayr Tovmasyan's godson, who served as HHK Justice Ministry official, has been busted.

Investigators say:

The incident happened when Hrayr Tovmasyan was the Justice Minister. Godson Norayr Panosyan was the head of some notary-related department in the Ministry. Panosyan, his colleagues, and Yerevan municipality workers abused their powers between 2012-2013. Panosyan and other suspects forced several notaries, under the threats of termination and business takeaway, to falsify documents to illegally register certain city-owned properties under suspects' possession.

Panosyan was the notaries' supervisor. Part of the scheme was to rig auctions and obtain property from the city at a lower price. Multiple such properties were obtained before being leased/sold for a much higher price.

Norayr Panosyan has been arrested and charged with one felony count. An accomplice is charged with 2 felonies.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/170450

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Maralik's HHK mayor was accused of corruption by the residents. Recently a felony investigation was launched. Police has revealed charges against him.

It's about registering a city-owned apartment under a family member and related fraudulent activities; registering non-existent employees to steal salaries; for demolishing a new school that was being built and selling the materials; for removing water pipes from the settlement and embezzling it.

Two felony charges are pressed.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/170440

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Update: Former oligarch and IRS boss Gagik Khachatryan was recently arrested. The court has just denied the defense peition and ruled that the defendant should remain in jail. Lawyer claims his assets are frozen.

https://armtimes.com/hy/article/170496

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12 mayoral and other municipal elections took place in small settlements in provinces. The registered turnout was 49%. Some incumbents kept their seats, while in others the challengers won. In small settlements there is usually no "party fighting", with many politicians being "independent".

Parakar, with a relatively larger population, was the exception where two challengers ran against the HHK incumbent. Results are in the links below...

Parakar - challenger wins. Incumbent ends in 3rd place. https://hraparak.am/post/a57b39562fa648b4f7f6bd04b7a00b11

Zartonq - challenger wins (mayor's son shot towards crowd few months ago) https://armtimes.com/hy/article/170489

Vanevan - incumbent's son https://hetq.am/hy/article/108015

Khazaravan - incumbent https://hetq.am/hy/article/108017

Eghegnut - challenger https://hetq.am/hy/article/108018

Lusaghbyur - incumbent (had no challenger) https://hetq.am/hy/article/108019

Arevabyur - independents https://hetq.am/hy/article/108020

Nor Kesarya - incumbent https://hetq.am/hy/article/108021

Tandzut - incumbent https://hetq.am/hy/article/108022

Lchap - challenger https://hetq.am/hy/article/108023

Gegharquniq village - challenger https://hetq.am/hy/article/108025

Mrganush - incumbent https://hetq.am/hy/article/108026

Khashtarak - incumbent https://hetq.am/hy/article/108031

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/989838.html

Singapore PM has visited Armenia. Visited Genocide memorial. He'll participate in the EAEU meeting in Yerevan, where they'll agree on a tariff-free trade deal, which was earlier approved by the Armenian govt. Investment agreement will be signed with Armenia.

Pashinyan: We've met several times. There are some results already. Singapore and Armenia both lack natural resources but have human resources. Education and tech are important. Next year there will be Armenian cultural days in Singapore.

On Monday, leaders of Iran, Belarus, Kazakhstyan, Kyrgyzstan and Moldova arrived. They'll be joined by Russia and others soon. There will be a EAEU trade talk.

Belarus' Lukashenko: Belarus and Armenia will always remain brothers. Trade is and will be high. We'll support Armenian business in Belarus. If you're interested with our businesses, we'll come and do joint projects. (Trade with Belarus grew 40% YoY.)

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/170457

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/170458

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/170480

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/989960.html

Belarus http://arka.am/en/news/economy/lukashenko_armenia_belarus_trade_grows_by_140_percent/

Yerevan municipality will begin to ban night clubs and other "qyart attraction points of interests" from operating under residential apartment buildings, due to many complaints. The law was passed in late-2018.

Mayor Marutyan says most of these business owners were already operating illegally without a proper paperwork and taxation.

The business owners will be given the ability to convert their business into something that is not on the ban list, or to move the current business 100m away from such buildings.

563 such businesses were fined by the police for causing disturbance in the past 9 months.

https://armtimes.com/hy/article/170526

1/3rd of Yerevan residents want the bus ticket prices to go up by 50-100% as long as the conditions are improved. 3,500 participants in a poll conducted by the municipality.

https://youtu.be/gxfSvvKSbuE

Day (lost the count) of military exercises. Heavy equipment was cleaned and prepared for combat. Night time Fire guidance training was carried out. 5th corp received reservists. They joined the trainings on how to mine and de-mine, secure a bridge, etc.

https://youtu.be/r1VWMUb-pAc

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/989773.html

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/989774.html

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/989776.html

3 US Congressmen sent a letter to Trump administration asking them to cut the military aid to Azerbaijan.

https://factor.am/187728.html

Defense Ministry has signed a high-tech & education contract with two institutes to create a new military "Unit 19-91". Its soldiers will receive professional training and education which they'll be able to apply in the army if they wish to become career soldiers upon being discharged from the Unit. They could also apply the experience in the private sector.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/989889.html

https://news.am/arm/news/536211.html

Tag: FAST Foundation

The military defense budget will remain almost the same for 2020. Budget changes plan to spend more on improving living conditions for soldiers.

2017: 210bln

2018: 247bln

2019: 301bln

2020: 301bln

http://www.panarmenian.net/arm/news/273501/

Beginning today, some farmers can obtain an insurance for their apricot and grape farms against damage by hail, fire and winter frost. Gradually, more types of crops and areas will qualify for insurance. There will be 5 tiers to choose from which will cover various types and amounts of crops.

The govt will subsidize at least 50% of the insurance premium.

www.aina.am

https://armtimes.com/hy/article/170504

A German company has agreed to plant 150 hectares of pomegranate and nuts in Artsakh. It is part of a plan to attract 10,000 hectare commercial farming, says former PM Araik Harutyunyan.

https://armtimes.com/hy/article/170499

50 US-based doctors, mostly non-Armenian, went to Armenia to provide charity care as part of the Armenian Medical Mission humanitarian program. They'll treat patients and give surgeries in Armenia and Artsakh.

https://med.news.am/arm/news/23810/amn-ic-50-bzhishkner-hayastan-en-zhamanel-baregortsakan-bzhshkakan-araqelutyan-shrjanakum.html

Pyunik soccer club threatens to exit the national league unless changes are made by the HFF federation. HFF boss Arthur Vanetsyan earlier limited the number of foreign players the teams can bring from abroad. Pyunik says this has only resulted in an increased transfers of these and other players between the teams, which causes problems for them. Pyunik has ended its regional expansion plans and called for reforms to be made, and for HFF not to "dictate" where and how they should play.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/989949.html

Heno Mkhitaryan tfu tfu tfu is doing well in Roma. He played from the start and gave a pass which ended with a goal. Obviously he received an injury and had to leave. It's unclear if he'll be able to play in the upcoming Armenia game.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/989833.html

We know the real reason why president Sarkissian visited Italy last week. Find out why by clicking the link below...

Click this link

https://factor.am/187796.html

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Link to original report and comments: https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/dbg72a/anticorruption_news_sep3019_murder_invstg/