Police and Healthcare Workers Engaged in Criminal Scheme, Violating the Arms Law

The Special Investigative Service of Armenia has uncovered a criminal scheme related to the extension of permits for storing and carrying hunting weapons, involving not only police officers but also employees of medical institutions.

Specifically, the investigation revealed that a senior inspector from the licensing unit of the Central Division of the Police in Yerevan became aware that the permits of five residents of Yerevan for keeping and carrying hunting weapons had expired. In violation of the requirements of the Law on Arms, he organized and facilitated the illegal process of extending those permits.

To organize the extension of the permits, individuals provided the police officer with various sums of money in October and November 2019. The officer misused his official powers by sending inquiries to two mental health centers under the name of the head of the Central Division of the Police to obtain information regarding the health status of these individuals without making necessary payments, and received responses confirming that these individuals were not registered in those healthcare facilities. He then shared copies of these responses with the head of the Armenia Medical Center.

At the direction of the head of the healthcare facility, a senior nurse from the same clinic, who served as the secretary of the medical commission, prepared evidently false medical conclusions stating that the individuals had no illnesses or physical disabilities that would hinder their ownership of weapons, without organizing medical examinations or collecting the mandatory fees. These documents were signed and stamped by the head of the clinic and the therapist and handed over to the police employee.

The police officer subsequently prepared and signed blatantly falsified applications to extend the permits for storing and carrying pneumatic, rifled, and smoothbore hunting firearms in the names of these individuals. Through these fraudulent documents, he paid only 19,200 AMD in state duties for the preparation of personal files, while using 95,300 AMD for personal needs. Allegedly reviewing their applications, he deemed it possible to grant these individuals permission and issued permits for keeping and carrying their registered hunting rifles, which were personally delivered to them after approval from the division chief.

Notably, one of the permits to extend the storage and carrying period for a rifled hunting firearm was issued in the name of a person who was not present in the country.

As a result of these actions, on March 10, 2020, the preliminary investigative authority decided to involve the police officer as a suspect under Part 1 of Article 308 and Part 1 of Article 314 of the Armenian Criminal Code (five episodes).

The existence of such a criminal scheme, along with the fact that permits were extended through fraud even for individuals not present in Armenia, reasonably leads to the assumption that these illegal mechanisms may have been applied or could be applied in other areas of the Republic as well.