Vladimir Gasparyan Must Pay 900 Million Dram to Former Owner of His House

The former Chief of Police of Armenia, Vladimir Gasparyan, is obligated to pay 900 million dram to the former owner of a house that currently belongs to him. This decision was made by the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction, presided over by Judge Arthur Mkrtchyan, as reported by Hetq.am.

The previous owner of the house, Agasi Danielyan, filed a lawsuit in 2018. Danielyan had sold his house to Vladimir Gasparyan's mother-in-law, Heghush Galstyan, but has not yet received the 900 million dram from the sale. Danielyan requested that the obligations of Gasparyan's mother-in-law be transferred to Vladimir Gasparyan and his wife, Susanna Gasparyan, asserting that the real party in the transaction was indeed Vladimir Gasparyan.

On April 10, 2020, the court ruled in favor of Agasi Danielyan. The buyer's obligations under the real estate sale agreement between Danielyan and Gasparyan's mother-in-law were transferred to Vladimir Gasparyan and his wife. The registration of the house in the name of Vladimir Gasparyan's minor son was declared invalid. The ownership rights should be registered in the cadastre as joint property of Vladimir Gasparyan and his wife. The Gasparyans are required to pay Agasi Danielyan 900 million dram for the house and an additional 18 million dram to the state budget as a state duty. The seizure on the Gasparyans' accounts and property will remain in effect until the court decision is executed. The ruling can be appealed in the Court of Appeals.

Before reaching such a decision, the court considered the positions of the plaintiff and the defendants, analyzed the factual circumstances, and cited several times an article published in Hetq regarding the house transaction. According to the ruling, Vladimir Gasparyan and the other defendants did not participate in the court hearings, did not respond to the lawsuit, nor did they present a position regarding the evidence presented in the Hetq article entitled 'Vladimir Gasparyan Became the Owner of a $3 Million House for $200,000.'

In the 'Reasoning, Analyses, and Conclusions' section of the ruling, Judge Arthur Mkrtchyan notes that the representative of the defendants stated in the response to the lawsuit that their clients do not dispute the circumstances of the contract signing but do not accept the claim that Vladimir Gasparyan was the actual buyer of the house. However, no evidence was presented to the court to contradict the facts presented by the plaintiff.

The court specifically analyzed the behavior of the Gasparyans, including their mother-in-law and the representative of Vladimir Gasparyan's wife's family, lawyer Tigran Atanesyan. In this civil case, the judge has twice referred to the Prosecutor General with a request to initiate a criminal case, as he believed that the lawyer had shown disrespect to the court and defamed it. The decisions of the investigative body to reject the initiation of the criminal case have been appealed by the judge in the courts.

'In cases previously examined in court involving lawyer Tigran Atanesyan, the court sessions proceeded in an environment of reciprocal respect. Moreover, the lawyer has shown marked respect towards the court, just as it has been shown towards him,' wrote Judge Arthur Mkrtchyan, continuing, 'However, acting as the representative of former Chief of Police of Armenia Vladimir Gasparyan, Tigran Atanesyan exhibited obvious disrespect towards the court and defamed it, although he had the means provided by the Civil Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia to protect his client's rights and faced no restrictions in doing so.'

Hetq had presented the story of the house purchased by the former Chief of Police two years ago. Since the initiation of the criminal case based on our publication, which is being investigated by the Special Investigative Service, there has been no progress reported to date.