On July 25, 2024, Anna Vardapetyan, Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia had a consultation in the Prosecutor’s Office of Armavir Region regarding the fight against illegal subsoil use.

Armen Panosyan, Head of the Department of Cases of Crimes against the Fundamentals of the Constitutional Order, the State and Public Security of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Vahan Sargsyan, Prosecutor of Armavir region and prosecutors of the Prosecutor’s Office of the region participated in the consultation.

Referring  to the works implemented in the direction of detection of illegal cases of subsoil use and restoration of damage caused to the state, Vahan Sargsyan, highlighted  that criminal proceedings mainly concerned illegal sand mining from the land plot or water area by the natural persons without any permission and license, mining outside the licensed territory by the legal persons, cases of sand mining in the guise of building fish farms, and misuses by the legal persons in the territory defined by their license.

“The reports are mainly received from the Environmental Protection and Mining Inspection Body, National Security Service and the Police, however the head of the community and administrative officer of the area must be the first to submit the report. It is impossible that several vehicles and equipment enter the territory of the community and the head of the community state the he didn’t know about it,” highlighted Vahan Sargsyan, adding that he had raised this issue during sitting of the regional council as well.

Pursuant to Vahan Sargsyan, 38 criminal proceedings were initiated on the cases of spoiling the land, violating the requirements on the preservation and use of lands, engagement in the illegal business during 2023 and 10 criminal proceedings, during the first quarter of 2024. “We restored AMD 130 million in the scope of 8 criminal proceedings”, stated the prosecutor of the region. 

During the consultation Anna Vardapetyan, Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia gave some assignments to the prosecutor of the region and defined the term for their implementation.