Unauthorized Construction on Forest Lands in Lori Province Leads to Criminal Case

As a result of media monitoring conducted by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Armenia, an article published on September 16, 2019, by the news website Hetq.am, titled "Concrete Structures and Barbed-Wired Enclosures: Who is Renting Lori's Forests and for What Purpose", drew significant attention. It was forwarded to the Lori Province Prosecutor's Office for further examination and resolution of the mentioned circumstances.

The Office of the Prosecutor General reported that under the instruction of the province's prosecutor's office, materials were prepared at the Stepanavan division of the Lori Provincial Police, which revealed that between 2010 and 2018, rental contracts for forest lands were signed between the Hayantar State Non-Commercial Organization and several physical or legal entities. These contracts granted rental access to certain sections of state-owned forest land located in the territory of the Stepanavan Forestry branch of Hayantar.

During the preparation of the materials, it was learned that the renters of these forest areas had duly paid their rents, and therefore, there were no debts or claims against them. Based on this, on October 9, 2019, the Stepanavan division of the Lori Provincial Police decided to refuse the initiation of a criminal case due to the absence of a criminal act.

These materials were requested and studied at the Department of Corruption Crimes of the Office of the Prosecutor General. It was found that the assessment of the preparatory materials had only targeted the actions of the individuals renting the forest lands. However, according to the rental contracts signed between Hayantar and citizens or legal entities, provisions regulating the procedure for making divisible and indivisible improvements, which prohibit capital construction, were violated by the renters, who constructed main buildings without authorization on the mentioned plots in 2013 and 2017.

Despite having received factual data regarding the potential presence of criminal characteristics in the actions of the competent persons, this issue was not addressed within the investigation framework, and no legal assessment was provided regarding the violations committed by the renters in the rented forest areas. Accordingly, the Lori Province Prosecutor issued a written instruction to prepare materials to provide legal assessments to the actions of relevant competent persons.

Consequently, a criminal case has been initiated at the Stepanavan division of the Lori Provincial Police concerning the alleged abuse of power by the competent officials of Hayantar, under the features of the crime specified in Part 1 of Article 308 of the Criminal Code of Armenia. The preliminary investigation is being conducted by the Stepanavan division of the Lori Provincial Investigation Department.