Criminal Case Launched Against Shushi Community Leader Artvik Sargsyan

The Office of the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Artsakh has initiated a criminal case against Artvik Sargsyan, the leader of the Shushi community, on charges of abuse of official power. This comes in response to the inclusion of obviously false information regarding seven citizens in the list of beneficiaries of state support programs.

According to NEWS.am, the Prosecutor's Office of Artsakh reported that “Artvik Sargsyan, while holding the position of the head of the Shushi community and operating under the powers established by the legislation of the Republic of Artsakh, exploited his official position as the chairman of a commission formed by the Shushi administration to assist residents registered or actually living in communities under Azerbaijani control as a result of military actions. Acting out of personal interest, with sympathy for providing financial assistance and with the help of commission members, he included obvious false information about seven citizens in the lists of community beneficiaries, claiming they had resided in Shushi over the past three months before the military operations commenced.

As a result, these lists were sent to the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of the Republic of Artsakh, based on which they received assistance amounting to a one-time payment of 300,000 AMD for each displaced person, inflicting a total material damage of 2 million 100 thousand AMD to the state.

The criminal case has been opened under Articles 322 (Abuse of Official Power), 332 (Official Forgery), and 37 (Types of Accomplices) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Artsakh,” the message from the Prosecutor's Office stated.