Prosecutor's Office on the Alienation of Several Orchards Prior to Harutyunyan's War

After the 44-day war in 2020, there were several statements regarding the alienation of agricultural lands and orchards by the President of the Republic of Artsakh in the Hadrut region and other communities that fell under Azerbaijani control before the war. This has been reported by the Artsakh Prosecutor's Office.

A report of this content was also submitted to the Artsakh Prosecutor General's Office, based on which a criminal case was initiated. During the pre-trial investigation, information was requested and obtained from the Artsakh Cadastre and State Property Management Committee and the State Registry of the Artsakh Ministry of Justice. According to the data received, immediately before and earlier than the 2020 44-day war, there was no alienation of property belonging to the President of Artsakh and his family members, including the sale of shares, to another person.

To uncover potential cases of mediated alienation of property, operational assignments were issued to investigative bodies by the investigator of the Special Investigative Division of the Artsakh Prosecutor General's Office; however, even as a result of the measures taken, no such cases were found.

On February 11 of this year, a Facebook user, Boris Murazi, made a post containing the following: "The NSS has exposed a group of spies who sold the lands and property of Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan before the war in the areas returned in the last war. The evildoers purchased thousands of hectares of land in Rostov with the money from the sold property and registered it in the name of Arayik Harutyunyan." Moments later, the published text was edited, with an additional sentence stating: "The NSS Humor Main Department." The investigator of the Special Investigative Division of the Artsakh Prosecutor General's Office will soon approach the mentioned Facebook user, proposing that he provide to the Prosecutor's Office any documents confirming the authenticity of the publication or evidencing it.

At the same time, we would like to inform that during the investigation of any statements of public concern, the investigative body is not tasked with "creating" evidence, but rather with documenting, legally recording, and assessing them. Therefore, if anyone possesses fact-based evidence concerning the aforementioned issue, it can be submitted to the Artsakh Prosecutor's Office (confidentiality is guaranteed if personal data privacy is necessary) for investigation and legal assessment as stipulated by the Artsakh Criminal Procedure legislation. Otherwise, such statements merely serve as a tool to continuously agitate the already tense nerves of thousands of Artsakh residents and our displaced compatriots.