Raids at Other Companies Providing Services to 'Nor Zovq' LLC: Human Rights Defender

Law enforcement officials conducted raids today, February 20, at the companies 'Aktrade-Soft' and 'Aktrade-Armen' that provided services to 'Nor Zovq' LLC. This was reported to NEWS.am by Tigran Sargsyan, the president of the educational human rights protection NGO 'Vahan of Education.'

According to the human rights defender, numerous violations occurred during the raids that restricted individuals' rights guaranteed by the Constitution to ownership, physical and mental inviolability, personal and private data protection.

“Before conducting a raid, the investigator is obliged to present a copy of the court decision to the legal possessor of the object subject to the search or their representative with a signature, which was not done, violating Article 234 of the Criminal Procedure Code (General Conditions of Search),” Sargsyan stated.

Within the framework of the 'Nor Zovq' case, all employees of the company, individuals entering the premises, customers, and unrelated third parties were also subjected to the search without reasonable suspicion, and their phones and personal belongings were seized without the required decision, which cannot be justified or legal.

The seizures were carried out without adhering to the appropriate regulations—without packaging and sealing,” Sargsyan noted.

He added that the individuals conducting the raid did not introduce themselves beforehand. Moreover, during the raid, no records were made regarding the seized items, and copies were not provided.

The human rights defender emphasized that the ability to freely enter and exit the premises of the companies was compromised.

Sargsyan, unaware of the ongoing events, also became a “victim” of the raid during a visit to his brother: “Two mobile phones and a notebook were seized from me. In my case, too, no record of the seizure was prepared nor was a copy handed over to me with a signature.”

He recounted that there was also a citizen of the Russian Federation present at the scene, who did not speak Armenian, and no translators were invited by the investigators.

“The operational-investigative actions were carried out without prior notification of the seizure decision and the scope of the items and documents subject to seizure—violating the law and without the requisite grounds established by Article 239 of the Criminal Procedure Code,” the human rights defender emphasized.

It is noteworthy that since early morning today, investigators have been conducting searches and seizures in the stores of 'Nor Zovq' LLC. A representative of the company, lawyer Aramazd Kiviryani, has deemed these actions illegal.