Open Letter Asking General Prosecutor’s Office to Stop Sponsoring Fraud and Usury

For months, the Veles NGO has been fighting not only against usurers and frauds but also against their patronizing representatives in the prosecutor’s office. Veles NGO Director Marina Poghosyan, who works on cases with victims of usury and fraud, has written an open letter to General Prosecutor Gevorg Kostanyan.

“Moreover, we have attempted to also personally inform you of the current problems, however your indifferent and uncommunicative attitude has made us suspicions that the above mentioned group carries out its criminal actions with the sponsorship of the General Prosecutor or due to the inaction of the office,” noted Poghosyan.

She stressed that the issue is related to the protests by a group of citizens against former Head of Civil Aviation Department Hovhannes Yeritsyan and member of the Chamber of Advocates Artavazd Ayvazyan, to which a criminal case has been initiated based on those complaints, however after a short time, the case was discontinued and the presiding prosecutors justified the legality of the decision to discontinue. 

“However, subsequently, after one of the decisions of discontinuing the case was appealed in court, it became clear, that the investigator did not conduct an objective and multi-sided examination. This particular case went back to the pre-trial stage, and we are hopefull that after the publishing of this letter the prosecutor will stop turning a blind eye and will possibly stop the sponsorship of the people accused of usury by several families, as well as properly supervise the investigation unit’s work,” stressed Poghosyan.

The letter notes that the Prosecutor’s office has turned a blind eye to yet another case related to Yeritsyan and Ayvazyan where the investigation was neither done objectively nor pluralistically.

“In this case, carrying out the latter’s will (absolutely not a Judicial Act, because no such Judicial Act exists), the Judicial Act  Compulsory Enforcement Service employees abused their official positions and subjected a 75-year old women and myself to violence. A criminal case had been initiated in regards to the incident, which was also discontinued and its discontinuation was again justified by the prosecutor’s office.

Even more astonishing is that the prosecutor supervising the case did not realize that the case was discontinued without the special investigative service’s investigator implementing any cross-examination, while there are multiple contradictions in the case. Additionally, the prosecutor did not realize that the explanations and testimonies of many people were written by one person, with whose lite hand this case was closed. The decision to discontinue the case is currently being appealed in court. We are convinced that this case will prove the Prosecutor's inaction,” underlined Poghosyan.

In her letter Poghosyan expressed the hope that Gevorg Kostanyan’s possibilities and authority would be sufficient for the RA General Prosecutor to reveal those individuals who are sponsoring the aforementioned couple in his directed institution, “throwing shade on the already mistrustful reputation of the General Prosecutor's office."