Charges Filed Against Former Mayor and Deputy of Meghri

The investigative department of the Syunik regional branch of the RA Investigative Committee has concluded the pre-investigation of a criminal case concerning the abuse of office by officials of the Meghri community. Charges have been brought against the former head of the community and his deputy, as reported by the department of information and public relations of the RA Investigative Committee.

A criminal case was initiated on July 19, 2018, in the investigative department of the RA National Security Service based on Article 308, Part 1, of the RA Criminal Code, and the pre-investigation was carried out by the Syunik regional branch of the RA Investigative Committee.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the community leader, who served from November 2012 to September 2016, together with his deputy, knowingly violated the provisions of the Local Self-Government Law and other normative legal acts, which caused substantial harm to the rights of individuals as well as to the legal interests of the community.

According to the data obtained during the pre-trial proceedings, during his tenure, the head of the Meghri city community and the deputy, who was also the director of the 'Meghri' fund, violated the Regulation set by RA Government's decision number 1328-A on June 18, 2015, regarding the infectious diseases hospital departments in Meghri and the land allocated for their use.

They further incorrectly utilized the previously unexploited buildings owned by the Syunik region's 'Meghri Regional Medical Center' LLC and intended to reconstruct them into residential space without proper assessment of the data regarding young families in need of housing during a fire incident at N7 residential building on Zoravar Andranik Street on June 13, 2015.

Specifically, without adequately examining the complete records of registered young families in need of housing, failing to organize a lottery for the distribution of apartments, and disregarding the imperative requirements of the aforementioned governmental decision, they arranged that young families, in need of free housing, would have to pay arbitrary amounts between 26,000 and 36,000 AMD per square meter set by the 'Meghri' fund.

Moreover, for similar purposes, garages of various sizes located at the same address were auctioned to six individuals at prices ranging from 247,500 AMD to 385,000 AMD.

As a result, families affected by the fire refused to pay and receive the free housing they were entitled to, while eight young families in need of housing paid a total of 17,556,710 AMD for their entitled homes, and 14 families, who had no rights to housing, were still provided housing.

Based on the evidence collected, charges have been filed against the former head of the Meghri city community and his deputy under Article 309, Part 1, of the RA Criminal Code. They have been ordered to sign a pledge not to leave the country, and a decision has been made to impose a lien on properties owned by them.

The criminal case has been sent to the prosecutor overseeing the legality of the pre-investigation.