Former Abovyan Mayor Charged in Illegal Land Sale Scheme

The Anti-Corruption Committee reports: it was revealed that during the period of 2015-2021, the person holding the position of the head of the Abovyan community (Vahagn Gevorgyan, ed.), disregarding the legal acts established by law and using his official position contrary to the interests of the service, alienated a number of non-alienable land plots located in the restriction zone provided for by Article 60 of the Land Code to various individuals and legal entities through sham auctions and direct sales. According to the master plan of the Abovyan urban community, these plots were public green areas.

"As a result of the said illegal actions, significant damage was caused to the Abovyan community, leading to severe consequences through negligence.

In addition, the aforementioned head of the community and a municipality employee drew up and circulated false protocols in connection with the auctions of land plots located at several addresses in the city of Abovyan, in which they included information that did not correspond to reality, alleging that auctions had taken place in which a number of persons participated, whereas in reality the auctions had not taken place in the prescribed manner, and the applications filled out in the name of other participants, apart from the winner, in the auction files did not correspond to reality, the signatures of the applicants for participation in the auction were also forged, and the 'participant' not recognized as the winner in the auction file did not participate in the auction.

For the above-mentioned crimes, the former head of the Abovyan community has been charged under Article 308, Part 2 (21 episodes), Article 314, Part 1 (6 episodes), and Article 196, Part 1 (2 episodes) of the former RA Criminal Code, and the municipality employee who assisted him under Article 38-308, Part 2 (6 episodes), Article 314, Part 1 (6 episodes), and

Article 38-196, Part 1 (2 episodes) of the same code.

During the preliminary investigation, 49,178,000 AMD of the damage caused to the community was recovered.