No Half Measures in the Fight Against Corruption, Says Nikol Pashinyan

The government has discussed and approved a package of draft laws concerning amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia and amendments to the Law on Bank Secrecy.

The First Deputy Minister of Justice, Rafik Grigoryan, noted that under the current legislation, law enforcement agencies are limited to the subjects from whom they can obtain information that constitutes bank secrecy. "In particular, based on the criminal procedure legislation, it is currently only possible to obtain bank data related to individuals who are suspects or accused, which has been criticized multiple times by international organizations," said Rafik Grigoryan, adding that the problem lies in the fact that often the bank data, which is crucial for the investigation of financial crimes, may relate not only to the suspect or accused but, for example, to individuals closely associated with them.

According to him, often the evidence that would allow a person to be involved as an accused is not available to law enforcement agencies.

"Armenia must ensure that, when necessary, financial data is available to law enforcement agencies for the purpose of revealing and investigating corruption crimes. This should include making available, particularly during criminal investigations, financial data related to individuals other than the suspects and accused, such as family members or associated persons, when there are sufficient grounds to suspect that these individuals participated in, assisted in committing a crime, or were aware of the crime," he said.

Rafik Grigoryan stated that it is proposed to create the possibility, in specific cases, to obtain information that constitutes bank secrecy without subject-based limitations.

In turn, Nikol Pashinyan remarked: "We are either fighting against corruption or we are not, because a half-hearted fight is unacceptable. We have had cases where we knew that a high-ranking official or their son-in-law was selling illegally acquired property, and that property had been formally registered in another person's name. Essentially, we knew that this was happening, but there were such legislative restrictions that we had to either make a gross illegal intervention or silently watch how the stolen goods were hidden," said Nikol Pashinyan, emphasizing that the political decision is clear—there will be no half measures in the fight against corruption.

The package of drafts aims to eliminate the subject-based limitations on obtaining bank secrecy information, service information related to securities transactions defined by the Law on Securities Market as prescribed by the Central Depository, and the limitations on obtaining information constituting insurance secrecy (suspect and accused), and establish that law enforcement agencies conducting criminal prosecution can obtain information constituting bank secrecy and the aforementioned information based on a court decision regarding searches or seizures.