You Are Not the People – Bonuses Are Proof: Arpine Hovhannisyan

Arpine Hovhannisyan writes on her Facebook page: “Thus, the parliament has adopted the law on 'Confiscation of Property of Illegal Origin'. As before, I will not comment on the ignorant and hasty parliamentarians who have only read and repeated the title of the law, particularly those who have switched sides.

If you remember, our NGO, as well as parliamentary factions, had published a number of proposals regarding the draft law, and I am happy that the only person from the entire ruling camp who was aware of this draft was Minister Badassian, who has shown some intelligence by responding to certain suggestions and making specific amendments.

In this way: 1. The threshold for the confiscation of property of illegal origin has been raised from 25 million drams to 50 million drams. This is not a remedy, but still positive considering that the people's Prime Minister has instructed to check and seize property from drivers to assistants and advisors.

2. As a result of the changes, the threshold for proving good faith acquisition (that is, a person who did not know and could not know that their acquired property was illegal) has been clarified. In this case, the property CANNOT be seized, unless, of course, the state proves that the good faith acquirer was aware or ought to have been aware of the initial owner’s violations.

What does this mean? If a person, for example, did not hold any office at the time of property purchase or even held an office and legally purchased, say, a plot of land with justified income from another person, then their property cannot be seized if it is proven, for instance, that the first (previous owner) acquired the property illegally or there were deficiencies during the auction or competition, etc., but the subsequent owner was unaware of this.

I emphasize this specially because, based on the people’s Prime Minister's instructions, certain law enforcement officers prone to 'marauding' have started to intimidate people and make threats. I have said once to law enforcement, and I repeat now: apart from the political and legal responsibility of the people’s Prime Minister and his team, you will also bear legal and personal responsibility for the ILLEGAL application of this law.

3. The period for conducting research has been set for the ten years preceding the decision (2010-2020), and in exceptional cases, this period may extend back to include time up to 1991. This change should be viewed from two perspectives: political and legal. Politically, the first phase of independent Armenia's history is excluded from the investigation with its notorious privatizations and various corrupt transactions, with all manifestations of looting.

It turns out that the complete restoration of injustices cannot be done by Nikol Pashinyan, even if he wishes to. However, the legal solution is understandable. Until 2011, there was no institution for property declaration of public officials in our country, illegal enrichment and a number of other important laws were adopted later, so if the legal perspective of the investigation included a broader timeframe, this would mean we would have losses in about a hundred cases at the European Court of Human Rights due to the retroactive application of a detrimental law.

In summary, I say: if the authorities have decided to use this extremely dangerous tool to universally confiscate all political opponents or potential subjects of Pashinyan's fears for their bonuses and expenditures, then let me disappoint you. If you can prove without hysteria that it is illegal, then it must literally return to the people, but not into your pockets. I will discuss the methods for this, and more, during Monday's broadcast.

P.S. Rustam jan (you remember, right? I am not flattering), definitely conduct a training for law enforcement, prepare guidelines, discuss, and explain. Don't forget to say that before taking any property from one person, they must be absolutely clean and have no such properties themselves.”