Public Criminal Prosecution Launched Against 44 Individuals, 25 of Whom Are Healthcare Workers: COVID-19

The identification of criminal manifestations aimed at undermining the government's efforts to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be one of the main tasks of the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia, primarily based on the necessity of ensuring public health security.

Within the framework of ongoing criminal proceedings conducted in the various subdivisions of the Investigative Committee, numerous cases of official crimes committed by dozens of employees of several medical institutions using a similar scheme during the process of preventing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic have been unveiled.

According to the data summarized by the Investigative Committee, as of May 1, 2023, a total of 68 criminal proceedings have been examined. The study of their materials indicates that the criminal mechanism manifested itself in two main ways. In one instance, several officials empowered to organize and implement the vaccination process against the COVID-19 pandemic, with the support of other healthcare staff, did not vaccinate hundreds of citizens but created false documents certifying that those individuals were vaccinated against the coronavirus. The false data were subsequently entered into the electronic health information system “ARMED.” As a result, these citizens received certificates indicating they were vaccinated, enabling them to bypass state-imposed restrictions in case of infection.

Moreover, in certain cases, healthcare workers conducting medical examinations prior to vaccination made evidently false entries in the outpatient medical records of citizens, stating that the individuals had undergone medical examinations justifying their vaccination against COVID-19 and claiming they were healthy. It was established that these citizens were not physically present in Armenia during their vaccination and could not have undergone examination or vaccination.

There were also numerous instances where individual healthcare workers organized the vaccination and issuance of certificates for foreign citizens who had not been in Armenia for the required period—over 10 days—in exchange for bribes at vaccination centers, by falsifying passport entries regarding those foreigners’ entry into Armenia.

The second criminal mechanism was applied in the process of diagnostic PCR testing for the coronavirus. Individual employees of medical institutions prepared and sold fake negative responses to COVID-19 tests to citizens, including travelers arriving in Armenia, which they presented upon request. This allowed individuals to move freely, bypassing mandatory self-isolation in case of a positive test result, and to enter Armenia without hindrance.

Many of the relevant healthcare workers received various amounts of bribes, either personally or through intermediaries, in exchange for providing certificates of vaccination with falsified data or fake negative responses to the coronavirus test without sampling. As a result, a public criminal prosecution has been initiated against a total of 44 individuals within the examined criminal proceedings, 25 of whom are healthcare workers. The materials of 12 of the examined criminal cases relating to 20 individuals have been sent to court with an indictment.

As of May 1, 2023, the preliminary investigation into 41 criminal proceedings concerning crimes committed during the measures to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic continues, while 8 criminal proceedings have been terminated on rehabilitative grounds. Notice: An individual charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty in accordance with the procedure established by the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia by a legally enforceable court judgment.