The fight against corruption is not going to be easy, as the Minister of Justice Arpine Hovhannisyan states. “The fight is not going to be easy, and the results will not be achieved easily. The existence of the political will suggests that we must continue the anti-corruption activities in the government system,” the Minister said during the discussion with donor and civil society organizations.
And according to Arpine Hovhannisyan in order to conduct the fight effectively three factors are needed: appropriate legal base, will and unity.
According to the Minister a lot of activities have been carried out in order to reduce corruption during the last years, and among that activities she stressed the cooperation between the civil society and the Government: “On September 23 we declared about the anti-corruption platform of the State and civil society, when The Ministry of Justice signed a memorandum of understanding with the representatives of CSOs.”
In addition to this, Ms. Hovannisyan talked about the institute of criminalization of illicit enrichment. She said that it is incorporated in the new Criminal Code, which is still being elaborated. Notably, Iravaban.net addressed a question to the minister about this issue. She mentioned that the Article is still being developed and professional opinions will appear later.
Dr. Piotr Antoni Świtalski, the head of the EU Delegation in Armenia, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, stated that article is rather vague in the Criminal Code. “In Armenia this article must also include the provision when a person knows about the corruption and does not tell about it, I think it must be considered a criminal offence,” said Mr. Świtalski.
He talked about the corruption in the court system and prosecution, and stated that the state should be united to fight against the corruption, just in the way as it is united about the issue of recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
He also brought the example of Poland stating that any case of corruption should be considered at court, and the citizens should have the opportunity to appeal and to seek justice against the corruption. He also proposed to have special anti-corruption judges.
According to the ambassador there should be a special control commission for judges and prosecutors, which will be specialized in the fight against corruption.
Then the representatives of donor and civil society organizations talked, namely Mr. Karen Zadoyan, AYLA President, the Coordinator of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition Secretariat, said: “the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition highlights the importance of the creation of State-Civil Society Anti-Corruption Platform on 23 September of this year, and two working groups are going to operate in relation to the issues of the criminalization of illicit enrichment and the independent anti-corruption body.” Touching upon the article in relation to the illicit enrichment included in the Draft Criminal Code, Mr. Zadoyan stated that it is wrong to put the burden of proof on the state in case of a charge filed based on the Article of illicit enrichment, as the crime of the illicit enrichment is a consequential crime, which presupposes the stipulation of criminal liability in case of finding assets and property obtained by means of the committed and undiscovered crimes. So in case of such crime the burden of proof should be given to the defendant. Karen Zadoyan mentioned that AYLA and CSOs will soon present the appropriate proposals to the state authorities and to the working group developing the Criminal Code.
Gevorg Tosunyan
Aleksandr Sargsyan
