The Anti-Corruption Court continued the judicial investigation into the confiscation of property of alleged illicit origin that belongs to the leader of the “Prosperous Armenia” Party, former Deputy of the National Assembly, businessman Gagik Tsarukyan and his related persons. Judge Lili Drmeyan presided over the session.

According to the lawsuit, the General Prosecutor’s Office’s Department for Confiscation of Illegally Sourced Property presented a demand to the court to confiscate the assets from the defendants in favor of the Republic of Armenia.

• 79 real estates. 
• 42 vehicles.
• Acquisition cost of 8 unidentified vehicles: 348 million 194 thousand drams.
• The amount of the ceded claim right is about 33 million drams.
• Market value of 10 real estates, which legally belong to Gagik Tsarukyan. 
• 39 shares and bonds in legal entities.
• Right to demand loans of 63 billion drams.
• The amount of loans provided to 12 individuals and legal entities (who could not be identified) is about 16.8 billion drams.
• Demand for confiscation of 86 billion 400 million drams, which is the sum of income from the use of property of illegal origin and payments, transfers and other outputs not justified by legal income.

According to Iravaban.net, prosecutor Gevorg Kocharyan has joined the prosecutor Hamlet Harutyunyan at the trial in this case.

Gevorg Kocharyan

Gagik Tsarukyan’s defense attorney Varazdat Asatryan noted that the latter’s participation in this case creates impossibilities both from the point of view of practice and power of attorney.

“At the stage of submitting the claim, ultimately, through which of its entities or which employees can the competent body act and whether these actions are legal or not, because in one process within the framework of this case, the main representative of the claimant, Mr. Harutyunyan, initiated a claim without the power of attorney, now, if Mr. Kocharyan acts with a power of attorney, we come to the issue that at the stage of accepting the claim, the latter must be authorized to take such an action in the name of the head of the competent body,” Asatryan said.

He also emphasized that in his opinion, Gevorg Kocharyan’s presentation of the power of attorney, acting within the framework of this case is completely legal, but the participation of Hamlet Harutyunyan is not permissible in that case, because he does not have a power of attorney.

Prosecutor Gevorg Kocharyan, expressing his position, first addressed the issue that the conclusion of the proceedings within a reasonable period of time is primarily in the interests of the defendants, and the trials should be completed as soon as possible.

Hamlet Harutyunyan

Regarding the power of attorney, he mentioned that Hamlet Harutyunyan was involved in the investigation of this case from the beginning, which is also evident from the documents, and the lawsuit was filed by him. “Unlike Mr. Harutyunyan, my involvement in this proceeding was based on the power of attorney of Srbuhi Galyan, Deputy of the Prosecutor general, other employees could also be involved in the same format.”

The purpose of his involvement in this case was to better represent the scope of the case and the interests of the plaintiff.

Regarding the continuation of the session, the Judge noted that the court sees an opportunity to continue the session and finds that it will be formal to postpone the session only once, on the basis of not being properly notified of the third party, because the requirement of effective investigation of the case will suffer.

Regarding the powers of Gevorg Kocharyan, the court recorded that the latter does not act as a representative, “but as a more legal representative”.

Before the filing the claim, Varazdat Asatryan requested to hold the court session behind closed doors. The Judge’s decision on this claim will be published in a separate court act.

Mariam Shahnazaryan