Someone once said: 'A citizen is not material for fines' - Artsakh lawyer

“I have just learned that today, two residents of Artsakh have been penalized by the Armenian police with an administrative fine of 100,000 AMD for driving a vehicle without a mandatory insurance contract (APPA). Moreover, these are individuals who do not have a temporary residence, work, or any other source of income in the Republic of Armenia. The police did not even consider the circumstance that one of the violators was transporting their child to the hospital while imposing the administrative penalty,” stated Artsakh lawyer Roman Yeritsyan on Facebook.

“Someone once said: ‘A citizen is not material for fines.’ Furthermore, another citizen was fined yesterday for driving from Sevan to Yerevan after hearing about his brother's death due to burns, heading to the Armenia Medical Center.”

Essentially, the state of Armenia, represented by the current executive power, is placing a responsibility on a citizen of Artsakh holding an Armenian passport that is practically impossible to fulfill. In other words, a forcibly displaced, unemployed individual, who even lacks funds for basic living expenses, is still obliged to sign an APPA contract; failure to do so results in administrative penalties.

Of course, some may express the opinion that if a citizen cannot afford to sign an APPA contract, then they should not drive at all. However, it should be taken into account that at this time, the majority of Artsakh residents do not even have the necessary funds for fuel, implying they only drive under dire necessity (such as searching for relatives, moving belongings, or urgent hospital visits).

What I am saying is that pursuing such a policy at this stage is more than premature, and if those responsible are pursuing some other objective (for instance, administratively penalizing citizens to compel them to sign an APPA contract and thereby lighten their burden in the event of potential accidents), then initially, they should allocate additional resources to assist with signing these contracts. Regardless, the chosen method, in my opinion, is inhuman and the worst possible.

Postscript: I remind you that during the nine-month blockade in the Republic of Artsakh, residents did not operate vehicles due to the lack of fuel, hence there was no need to sign an APPA contract. For this reason, almost every Artsakh resident who moved to Armenia does not have mandatory insurance for vehicle usage.

Postscript 2: I am not the person penalized in the video.

Postscript 3: In this specific case, a person receiving 100,000 AMD in social support was issued an administrative fine of 110,000 AMD.

For your information, a driver without an APPA contract is exempt from paying 75% of the fine, provided they resolve the violation within 24 hours of the issuance of the penalty notice. That means if they present an APPA contract within 24 hours, the driver will only pay a fine of 25,000 AMD.