Artur Sakunts: "They try to demonstrate as if they struggle against corruption"

4 cases have been brought against the Lori Region Prosecutor’s Office for accusations of bribery as well as of abuse of their official position.

On Friday the Court of First Instance of Lori Region satisfied the solicitation of the Lori Region Police Investigation Department by lengthening the custody term of doctors being accused of taking bribes for two months. According to the police, Filomena Mosoyan, a psychiatrist-neurologist of the “Spitak Medical Center” CJSC Spitak poly-clinics, and Gayane Gasparyan, a senior neurologist of Vanadzor hospital 2, are accused of taking bribes in the amount of 55 thousand AMD from a resident of Jrashen. Besides the cases against the doctors, this year 2 other cases of taking bribes have been brought to the Lori Region Prosecutor's Office. These cases concern the processing of allocating pension and family benefits.  The prosecutor also gives an example of a criminal case brought for misappropriating of state funds in 2010.  As a result of their examination, 54 million AMD has been returned to the state budget.  Karen Shahbazyan, the prosecutor of Lori Region, says that struggling against corruption is effective. 

Artur Sakunts, Human Rights Defender, contradicts the prosecutor and points out that many corruption and bribery cases are being neglected by law enforcement bodies for years. “Years ago, the Stepanavan mayor abused his official position when he fired a shot at his co-citizen”;   the case was closed and the mayor was set free.  Sakunts considers the struggle against corruption by law-enforcement agencies as an imitation. “They show us small cases against common workers and in small and medium sectors”, says the human rights defender.

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