Over $2.5 Million in Fines Issued for Not Wearing Masks

Since the declaration of a state of emergency in the Republic of Armenia until July 30, a total of 118,259 administrative records have been compiled for not wearing masks. This figure was officially provided to “Factinfo” by the information center of the Armenian police in response to a written inquiry, indicating that the records were filed under part 1.1 of Article 182.3 of the Armenian Code of Administrative Offenses. It is noted that this article stipulates a fine of 10,000 drams.

This means that as of July 30, citizens of Armenia have been fined a total of 1,182,590,000 drams for not wearing masks, which is equivalent to about $2.5 million.

“Factinfo” had sent a written inquiry to the Armenian police to ascertain how many administrative records had been compiled for not wearing masks during the state of emergency, how many lawsuits had been filed in court for the collection of fines, the total amount claimed, and how many of the compiled records had been dismissed. Additionally, we inquired about how many administrative records had been created for violations of anti-epidemic rules set by the Prime Minister and how many lawsuits had been filed for the collection of these fines.

In response to the written inquiry, the police reported that from the time the state of emergency was declared due to the emergency situation until July 30, 2020, a total of 118,259 records had been compiled for violations defined by part 1.1 of Article 182.3 (for not wearing masks). By August 3, 2020, 1,137 complaints had been received by the Armenian police, 82 of which were accepted, and 491 were rejected.

Regarding the amount collected from the fines, the police clarified that fines through administrative acts are enforced via the service for the compulsory execution of judicial acts once their appeal processes are completed. As of September 1, 3,126 administrative acts had been sent to the enforcement agency.

During the mentioned period, a total of 269 records had been compiled for violations related to the restrictions on certain types of financial and technical activities, of which decisions on imposing administrative fines were made in 106 cases.

During the state of emergency, 709 individuals were detained for participating in banned gatherings based on the Prime Minister's decision, among whom administrative records were created for 703, and only the materials related to 94 of these records were sent to the Administrative Court of Armenia for resolution on administrative liability, amounting to a total of 4,700,000 drams.