Prosecutor's Office Initiates Illegal Proceedings Against Aram Vardanian (Vstrechi Apeer): Lawyer

The Prosecutor's Office has initiated what is clearly an illegal proceeding against Aram Vardanian (Vstrechi Apeer), and numerous rights have been violated during the process, with the claims being baseless. This was stated by Vardanian's lawyer, Lusine Sahakyan, in an interview with 24News.

On February 14, the Prosecutor's Office issued a press release announcing that a fourth application regarding the confiscation of property of illegal origin was submitted to the first-instance general jurisdiction court of Yerevan on January 20, 2022, which has been accepted for processing. The Department for Confiscation of Property of Illegal Origin of the General Prosecutor's Office has requested the court to confiscate from Aram Vardanian and two individuals connected to him, for the benefit of the Republic of Armenia, particularly 10 apartments, residential houses, a store, and buildings located in Yerevan, as well as 4 land plots in Kotayk and Tavush provinces, and 2 vehicles. In case of impossibility, the average market value of these properties, which totals 870,997,100 AMD, and an additional 260,298,106 AMD as the remaining illegal financial assets, amounting to 472,097,316 AMD.

“Considering that the case is already in court, we will naturally present our arguments before the court, and the public will see that an obviously illegal claim has been made,” the lawyer stated regarding the Prosecutor's Office's claim.

The lawyer did not specify which rights of Aram Vardanian have been violated in light of the ongoing judicial processes. She also did not indicate whether the property mentioned by the Prosecutor's Office has been seized.

“If you follow the process, you will see for yourself that this process has been clearly illegal from the outset and continues to remain illegal,” indicated the lawyer.

According to Lusine Sahakyan, as this is a different procedure, her client has not been interrogated.

According to the Prosecutor's Office's announcement, the property of Aram Vardanian is not justified by legitimate income and has illegal origins; thus, it cannot be confiscated based on Article 20, Part 4 of the law on confiscation of property of illegal origin (Presentation of the Claim) which states: “If the property of illegal origin has been transferred to a good faith acquirer, or it cannot be identified, separated, or confiscated, then by the court's decision, in the presence of a relevant claim, the respondent may be obliged to pay an amount equivalent to the market value of the property of illegal origin at the time of the claim.”