Anna Vardapetyan, Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia, made a report at the 34^th session of the Coordination Council of Prosecutors General of the CIS Member States, held in Yerevan today and touched upon the activities carried out in the field of protecting state (public) interests, as well as confiscation of property of illicit origin.

The session was attended by Mher Grigoryan, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Igor Krasnov, Chairman of the Coordinating Council, Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, Anna Vardapetyan, Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia, Vladimir Zimin, Executive Secretary of the Coordinating Council, Rahmon Yusuf Ahmadzod, Prosecutor General of the Republic of Tajikistan, Andrei Shved, Prosecutor General of Belarus, Galimzhan Koigeldiev, Deputy Prosecutor General of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nurbek Kaimov, Deputy Prosecutor General of the Kyrgyz Republic, Svetlana Artikova, Deputy Prosecutor General of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Sergey Kopirkin, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Armenia, and others.

Anna Vardapetyan particularly noted the following:

“The anti-corruption system, inter alia, covers legal measures, including criminal law, personnel, organizational and ideological ones.

Legal measures, including criminal ones, are of primary importance in combating corruption. In this context, the problems of the Prosecutor's Office shall face as follows:

• combating corruption-oriented crimes and restoring the social justice, which implies, inter alia, compensation for the damage caused to the person, society and the state,
• filing claims within the framework of the powers of the Prosecutor's Office to protect state interests,
• restoring the property of illicit origin, which ensures the return of property and financial assets to the state or communities,
• international cooperation in the field of returning the assets taken outside the country.

Personnel and organizational measures include high moral standards for prosecutors, as well as their accountability for their financial situation.

In selecting candidates for the position of prosecutor, the advisory opinion on integrity provided by the Corruption Prevention Commission is taken into account. Acting prosecutors are required to pass an integrity verification in the sixth year after their appointment.

At present, 198 prosecutors, which is almost 50 percent of the total number of prosecutors in the Prosecutor's Office system, have already passed an integrity verification. It is planned that all prosecutors must have passed the verification by the end of 2026. A negative advisory opinion received as a result of the verification should be a ground for the Prosecutor General to initiate mandatory disciplinary proceedings against that prosecutor.

The ideological aspect of the fight against corruption is based on the thesis — zero tolerance for corruption.

It should be noted that ideological measures also include information work. In the cases of frequent and public corruption, the Prosecutor General's Office properly informs the society about the process of criminal cases and rendered judicial acts.

Legal measures include the powers of the Prosecutor's Office to file claims:

• in protection of state interests,
• for the recovery of property of illicit origin.

The powers of the Prosecutor's Office to file claims for protecting state interests are prescribed for by the Constitution of Armenia, as well as the grounds and procedure for their implementation are in detail set out in the Law “On the Prosecutor's Office”. As a result of legislative amendments in 2023, the powers of the Prosecutor's Office in the field of protecting state and municipal interests were expanded. Currently they include filinf claims to protect the interests of not only the state, but also communities. The mentioned powers of the Prosecutor's Office cover a wide range of public relations, including the protection of state and municipal property, the environment, as well as the supervision over the privatization and alienation process of the buildings belonging to schools and preschool institutions, parks, squares and other territories, which are not subject to alienation.

From 2020 up to date, the Prosecutor's Office has initiated 537 inspections. In three cases submitted to the court, decisions have already been held to recover property of illicit origin in favor of the Republic of Armenia.

Currently, 107 claims on confiscation property of illicit origin are pending at the courts, the total amount of which exceeds USD 1 billion 440 million. These claims are related to the confiscation of not only financial means, but also real estate and other property, shares in legal entities, totally — about 2,000 objects.

From September 2023 to September 2024, within the framework of the powers of the Prosecutor's Office to protect state interests and restore property of illicit origin, the market value of the property, as well as the amount of financial means, returned to the state, exceeds USD 30 million.

Thus, 8 settlement agreements were concluded in the proceedings for the recovery of property of illicit origin, as a result of which financial means in the amount of more than AMD 5 billion /equivalent to more than USD 12 million/ were returned to the state.

I would also like to express the role of international legal cooperation in the field of returning assets taken outside the country. Multilateral and bilateral treaties ratified by the Republic of Armenia provide law enforcement agencies of Armenia with the opportunity to request and provide legal assistance.

The close cooperation of the Prosecutor General's Office with the competent authorities of a foreign state ensured the identification of property obtained through criminal activity and taken out of the country. As a result of four years of consistent cooperation, we managed to achieve the timely freezing and confiscation of property with a market value exceeding USD 30 million, over 80% of which is planned to be transferred to the Armenian side. In the process of international legal cooperation in criminal cases, we also managed to identify assets obtained through criminal means in a number of states, which are currently frozen.

This process is aimed at both preventing crimes and compensating for the damage caused by illegal actions, in particular returning assets stolen from Armenia. This process is long-term and is one of the priorities of the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Armenia.