Illegal Private Construction Permitted in Community Areas of Yerevan: Armenian Prosecutor's Office

Officials have unlawfully permitted private construction in community and individual co-owned areas and facilitated the state registration of rights over the building, leading to the initiation of a criminal case. This was reported by the Armenian Prosecutor's Office.

The Department for the Protection of Public Interests of the Prosecutor General's Office has initiated an investigation based on citizens' complaints regarding construction activities in the territory of an apartment building located in the Ajapnyak administrative district of Yerevan, submitted by a former member of the Yerevan Council.

As part of the investigation, relevant documents have been requested and received from the Yerevan Municipality, the State Committee of Real Estate Cadastre of Armenia, and the State Inspectorate for Urban Development, Technical and Fire Safety. The examination of these documents revealed that officials from the Yerevan Municipality and the State Committee of Real Estate Cadastre had allowed construction on the jointly owned property of the apartment building owners on Halabyan Street in the Ajapnyak administrative district, as well as on adjacent plots belonging to the community of Yerevan, and subsequently registered the rights to the constructed building, disregarding the lack of a decision from the apartment building owners' assembly on separating the property, as well as the legal grounds for granting land to the citizen for development purposes.

As a result, the community of Yerevan and the apartment building owners were deprived of the opportunity to manage, possess, and use approximately 122 square meters of their property at their discretion.

Given that the findings of the investigation indicate signs of abuse of official powers by officials from the Yerevan Municipality and the State Committee of Real Estate Cadastre, a criminal case has been initiated by the senior prosecutor of the Department for the Protection of Public Interests under Part 1 of Article 308 of the Criminal Code of Armenia. The investigation has been assigned to the Investigative Committee of Armenia.