ArmInfo. The law "On the return of illegally acquired property" will deprive motivation of potential corrupt officials. Member of the parliamentary faction of the bloc, Heriknaz Tigranyan, expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.
"The bill being discussed in parliament, providing for the return of illegally acquired property, including on the basis of a court sentence that does not contain charges, will be put on the agenda this week. And lawyers who position themselves as opposition to the current government, at the first mention of this idea described its as an attempt by the authorities to create a new law, " she said.
The parliamentarian assesses such statements as another attempt to mislead society. According to her, the existence of mechanisms for the return of illegally acquired property without the announcement of a guilty verdict is confirmed by international practice. Accordingly, it is these mechanisms, in Tigranyan's view, that become additional preventive tools to prevent corruption risks. If implemented and applied, this law will simply deprive potential corrupt officials of the motivating factor, since illegally acquired property will be collected in favor of the state.
"It must be understood that the fight against corruption does not mean overcrowded prisons with former corrupt officials. Or that it should be limited to a few dozens of court cases. The criminal proceedings in Armenia today do not allow reasonable people to wait for the pace of investigation, allowing these cases to reach the stage of forensic examination.In this light, today we have dozens of criminal cases involving former senior officials still under investigation, "she said.
In this light, according to parliamentarians, the number of convictions in all such cases is in no way an indicator of the degree of effectiveness of the fight against corruption in Armenia. In her opinion, the fact that systemic corruption in the country is beheaded, and the fight against corruption from the declarative level has reached the real level, today no one doubts. At a recent meeting with government law enforcement officials in the government, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that the law enforcement agencies in Armenia were led by traitors. Expressing dissatisfaction with the pace of the fight against corruption, the prime minister announced the need for "the return of funds stolen from the people and the state."
"Despite the fact that within the framework of the investigation of corruption cases after the" velvet revolution "150 million US dollars were returned to the budget, due to the slowness of law enforcement officials, the corrupt officials either manage to escape from Armenia or hide or destroy evidence. Not only key witnesses, but and the suspects and accused in a number of cases left Armenia, which led the investigation to a standstill. All these facts compromise the law enforcement system in general and the fight against corruption in particular, "Pashinyan said.