Epress.am News from Armenia
Opposition politician, leader of the party Yerkir Tsirani (Land of Apricot Zaruhi Postanjyan has filed an an Administrative Court appeal against the Armenian Government and the Yerevan City Hall.
Postanjyan claims that Yerevan’s Council of Elders, Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan and the Government have donated a large land plot belonging to the Yerevan community to Spayka, a private exporting company with alleged connections to the son-in-law of Armenia’s president. The “donation,” according to the oppositionist, was in violation of the procedures envisaged by the law “On Legal Acts.”
“Under the Article 92 of the law, such violations entail not only administrative and disciplinary, but also criminal liability,” Postanjyan stated in an interview with Epress.am.
State officials, she continued, decided within a day that the plot of land was subject to alienation and gave it to Spayka; the decision was as quickly ratified. Meanwhile, according to the law, such processes should last at least a month. First, the Council of Elders of Yerevan should have declared that the land was subject to alienation and informed the society about it through media. Afterwards, those who wished to acquire the land should have been given a month to submit their investment programs.
“Spayka, however, secretly applied on the same day. Normative acts come into force 10 days after publication. Meanwhile, Taron Margaryan did not wait and granted Spayka’s appeal. He then referred the appeal to the government, which, in turn, approved the donation without taking into account the violations,” Postanjyan said.
On September 15, the Government informed Postanjyan that the application was considered in accordance with the Article 605 of the Civil Code on donations for common purposes. According to Postanjyan, who is a lawyer by profession, donating a property to a company for business purposes is not commonly useful. “The above-mentioned article only applies to educational, scientific, and cultural programs,” she insisted.