Today, on 4 July, the Anti-Corruption Court continued hearing on examination of the claim about the demand for the confiscation of the illegally obtained property of the wanted former Prosecutor General Gevorg Kostanyan, his ex-wife Lilit Kostanyan, Arman Galstyan, his wife Teresa Gevorgyan and the nephew of the former Prosecutor General Ara Kostanyan. The Presiding Judge is Lili Drmeyan.

According to Iravaban.net, Varazdat Asatryan, the representative of Gevorg Kostanyan, submitted a petitioned to apply the statute of limitations and reject the claim filed by the Prosecuto rGeneral’s Office.

The lawyer believes that the change made in 2022 in the Law “On Confiscation of Property of Illicit Origin”, which “retroactively applied” the norm of setting the maximum period of study to 3 years instead of 2, is problematic. Asatryan believes that this legal relationship could not be affected by the non-existent legal regulation adopted in 2022. Therefore, the norm adopted earlier is applicable.

“The competent authority started the investigation on 8 October, 2020, a lawsuit was filed within the case on 21 December, 2022. In other words, 2 months after the 2-year deadline,” he said.

Nelli Ter-Torosyan, the Prosecutor of the Department for Confiscation of Property of Illicit Origin of the General Prosecutor’s Office, while presenting her position on the motion, stated that the submitted motion is pointless. “I completely object to the petition.”

She also mentioned that in the proceedings for confiscation of property of illicit origin, the statute of limitations is related to the duration of the investigation.

“Therefore, there can be a question of statute of limitations in the case of confiscation of property of illicit origin only in the case when the confiscation lawsuit was initiated more than 3 years after the decision to start the investigation,” the prosecutor said.

The court session was postponed, the decision on the petition will be published later.

We consider it necessary to remind that a petition  on a similar basis was also submitted in the case of confiscation of properties and funds of alleged illicit origin of former NA Deputy Mher Sedrakyan and his family. The representatives of the defendants, Aleksan Khachatryan and Varazdat Badalyan, submitted a petition to the court to apply to the Constitutional Court and suspend the case proceedings.

According to Varazdat Badalyan, the defendants were deprived of the right to submit a demand to apply the statute of limitations in connection with the lawsuit submitted after the expiration of 2 years of the study, thereby worsening their legal situation.

“The study period was actually extended, the interference with their rights continued, and the lawsuit was filed about 4 months after the 2-year maximum period of the law in effect in 2020, in violation of the period. Based on the above, we request to apply to the Constitutional Court in order to find out the constitutionality of the amendments made in 2022 in the Law “On Confiscation of Property of Illegal Origin” to be applied in this case and the compliance of the norm with the Constitution, to suspend the proceedings of the case until the final decision on the matter is made by the Supreme Court,” Varazdat Badalyan said.

Details in the video.

The Department for Confiscation of Property of Illicit Origin of the General Prosecutor’s Office, requires confiscation of: 

• One apartment in Yerevan, two private houses in Tsaghkadzor and Jrvezh communities of Kotayk region, and in case of impossibility, their average market value, which is 327 million 200 thousand AMD,
• 173 million 947 thousand 38 AMD as the balance of received illicit income,
• 276 million 193 thousand 454 AMD, which is not justified by the legal income of the person, has an illicit origin, was transferred to a bona fide acquirer or cannot be identified and confiscated.