Is Traveling to Baden-Baden Criminally Punishable? Amram Makinyan

In a discussion with ArmDaily.am, Amram Makinyan, the lawyer of Armenia's third president Serzh Sargsyan, commented on the new criminal case initiated by the Special Investigation Service (SIS) regarding the use of state resources for flights of a plane provided for the president's services from 2008 to 2017. He stated, "I want to mention that the law provides social guarantees for the President of the Republic, and second, in my practice, I have never witnessed a more unfounded criminal case than the initiation of this case."

The SIS has launched this criminal case under Part 2 of Article 308 of the Armenian Penal Code, related to several flights conducted without necessary service requirements and organized by high-ranking officials to Baden-Baden, Germany (Karlsruhe Airport) during the aforementioned period. During the preparation of the materials, it was found that the plane made numerous flights to Baden-Baden, some of which were organized in violation of established procedures without prior written requests from the president's office.

Makinyan highlighted, "Not everything that is written on paper can be considered a proper decision to initiate a criminal case. Regarding the social guarantees, let me remind you that there is an appropriate law on Social Guarantees for Officials, which regulates what social guarantees are provided to which officials, and what the state provides. The state even has an obligation to reimburse the former president's visits abroad for 10 days within one year. This is just one example."

When asked if it could be inferred from his statements that the president traveled to Baden-Baden within the scope of social guarantees, he replied, "Is traveling to Baden-Baden criminally punishable?" To the comment that the flights were organized with procedural violations, he responded, "Let them investigate this criminal case, and they will see how unfounded it is."