Land Sold in Davtashen for 18 Million Drams Less. Criminal Case Initiated

The Prosecutor's Office of the Ajapnyak and Davtashen administrative districts in Yerevan has initiated a criminal case regarding the sale of community-owned land in Davtashen at a significantly lower price than its market value in 2008.

According to materials prepared by the Investigative Department of the RA Investigative Committee's Unit for Ajapnyak and Davtashen, there are factual data indicating that, based on the decision of the Davtashen Community Council on September 25, 2008, the minutes on the privatization of property through auction dated October 6, 2008, and the decision of the Davtashen community leader on October 8, 2008, an area of 854.7 sq.m. of land owned by the Davtashen Community was sold for 33,000 Armenian drams per sq.m., totaling 28,205,100 Armenian drams, to a private citizen.

About a month after the sale of the mentioned land, on November 11, 2008, the Davtashen Community Council decided to purchase back 381.1 sq.m. of the sold land for 20,800,000 Armenian drams, equating to 54,578 Armenian drams per sq.m., for the purpose of organizing the activities of the community administration. On November 18, 2008, a sale and purchase agreement was signed between the citizen who bought the land and the Davtashen community.

However, in March 2009, the community council nullified the sales contract, citing the inability to pay the defined amount due to budgetary constraints.

As a result, a contract on the termination of the agreement was signed between the parties. Consequently, based on the prepared materials, it has been established that the community property in question was sold significantly below market value by more than 18,000,000 Armenian drams, leading to serious repercussions.

Considering that data obtained during the preparation of materials indicate that responsible officials of the Davtashen Community Council and the community administration have allegedly abused their official powers, resulting in serious consequences due to negligence, a criminal case has been initiated by the prosecutor of the Ajapnyak and Davtashen administrative districts under Part 2 of Article 308 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia.

The preliminary investigation of the criminal case has been assigned to the Investigative Department of the RA Investigative Committee's Unit for Ajapnyak and Davtashen.