70 Percent of 346.5 Million AMD Damage Recovered, Says Prosecutor's Office

The Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia reports that it is taking measures to protect the state's property interests and recover damages amid the refusal to initiate criminal cases based on unjustified grounds for corruption-related incidents and decisions to terminate proceedings or suspend prosecutions.

During the first half of 2019, criminal cases regarding corruption were rejected on the basis of unjustified grounds in 17 instances, and criminal prosecutions were either not pursued or were terminated in 86 cases (a total of 103), under the supervision of the Special Cases Division of the Prosecutor General’s Office and territorial subunits of the Prosecutor's Office. Of these, 27 cases were closed due to expiration of the statute of limitations, 34 due to granting of amnesty, 3 due to the death of the accused, and 39 based on grounds of effective remorse.

Decisions have been made not to pursue criminal prosecution against 122 individuals based on unjustified grounds or to terminate initiated matters. For comparison, in the same period of 2018, the number of criminal cases refused on unjustified grounds, terminated or suspended was 38, meaning it was approximately 3.5 times lower. Decisions were made not to pursue criminal prosecution against 63 individuals in these cases.

The mentioned statistics demonstrate the efforts of the Armenian Prosecutor's Office and other prosecutorial bodies, particularly since 2018, to recover damages caused to the state in corruption cases when adequate grounds exist, employing motivational frameworks that include legal exemptions from criminal liability and examining the effectiveness of this approach.

It is noteworthy that in the first half of 2019, the damage caused to the state and communities in these criminal cases amounted to 346.5 million AMD, of which a total of 248.4 million AMD, or 71.6 percent, was voluntarily recovered due to warnings issued by prosecutors. In all instances where prosecutorial discretion was applied not to continue prosecution, damages were fully recovered.

For the remaining damages, appropriate measures have been initiated in the course of civil proceedings. Specifically, claims have been filed by prosecutors in four cases demanding approximately 18 million AMD, which are currently under review. In 2018, for the same period, damages totaling 14.8 million AMD were identified in the cases where criminal prosecution was refused, terminated, or suspended, which were entirely recovered voluntarily, resulting in no lawsuits being filed in those cases.