VIDEO: Over 19 Million Drams in Damage from Sale of Military Base Land

Based on operational information received by the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Unit of the Police, evidence has been gathered indicating that officials from the Ministry of Defense (MoD) with organizational and managerial functions, driven by personal interests, misused their official positions against the interests of service. They sold land plots of the former military base, valued at around 15 and 11 million drams, which are included in the list of lands that cannot be transferred to citizens and legal entities under Article 60 of the Land Code of the Republic of Armenia, for direct sales of 4 million and 2.5 million drams in January 2009 to individuals associated with MoD officials.

The police report that subsequent to this, officials from the State Committee of Real Estate Cadastre, acting out of group interests, also misused their official positions against service interests and, disregarding the restrictions imposed by Armenian land legislation, issued property rights certificates for those plots in February 2009 based on the sales contracts.

As a result of these violations, the state has suffered damages of approximately 19 million 500 thousand drams. A criminal case has been initiated on October 22 in the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Unit, which has been forwarded to the Investigative Committee.