Author: David Stepanyan, Yerevan, exclusively to VK
A scandal erupted in the penal and judicial system of Armenia. In the "Nubarashen" penitentiary institution in the Ararat region businessman, a U.S. citizen of Armenian origin, George Bagumyan, died under arrest. The 65-year-old entrepreneur owned a company producing batteries for the defense industry and the military founded in early 1990 by his father in Armenia.
On October 27, 2012 Bagumyan was charged with tax evasion and illegal possession of weapons, after which he was arrested. Bagumyan was accused of failing to pay taxes to the amount of 16 million drams, which, after various fines, reached 41 million drams. But the charges did not involve his arrest and detention. According to Bagumyan’s lawyer Mushegh Shushanyan, his client had previously suffered a heart attack, suffered from hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and in the last days of his life was on his deathbed. The lawyer thrice petitioned for bail in the amount of 2,000,000 drams, but to no avail. At the last meeting on April 22 the judge once again dismissed the defense of Bagumyan’s side in the application for bail. After that, the lawyer said that if the judge granted the request of the investigator and extended the term of imprisonment for two months, it would be nothing more than a death sentence. In his last days the businessman was detained in the prison infirmary, where he could not get medical care, as in the penitentiary institution, which contained 1,200 prisoners, there was only one nurse. In this prison a lot of seriously ill prisoners are detained, in particular, Boris Petrossian, staying there from July 2012, although his condition is serious and no investigative action is taken.
Bagumyan’s lawyer considers the problem to be systematic, describing it as a disgrace to Armenian justice, and calls on Minister of Justice Hrayr Tovmasyan to resign. According to the head of the human rights organization "Helsinki Association" Mikael Danielian, the state is guilty of the violation of Bagumyan’s right to life being responsible for the punishment of a person without a verdict and bringing to death.
George Bagumyan’s brother, Serge Bagumyan, who recently arrived from the United States, described the incident as a homicide, saying that some people have long offered him and his brother to pay them for "relieving him of taxes", but the brothers refused. Serge Bagumyan said that during the investigation, he was demanded a bribe of 10 million drams to free his brother from arrest. Now Bagumyan’s family and lawyer intend to require criminal justice for those responsible for his unlawful detention and death. According to them, the arrest and all fabricated case were intended to get the company producing batteries. Bagumyan’s arrest had not a single legal basis and was carried out as a punishment. "The investigator Edgar Antonian just said to George," You will be in prison as long as you do not pay all the taxes. " Although the court was not provided with any evidence of this "debt", the lawyer said. Given that all other employees of the company were only witnesses in the case and were not arrested, the lawyer assessed the case against Bagumyan as targeted and customized.
Anyway, probably once a businessman from the diaspora has become a victim of irrepressible appetite of the representatives of at least two branches of the government of Armenia. Bagumyan’s case is not unique, there are many such examples, the only difference is that so far all these things were not accompanied by the death of Armenians from the Diaspora. In recent years, the government not only did not create a favorable atmosphere for investment income to the country, but also obstructed few entrepreneurs from the diaspora who dared to take risks and invest in the economic development of their historical homeland. One of the most striking examples of such a criminal policy of the Armenian authorities has become the pressing by tax, administrative, and even law enforcement agencies of Narek Harutyunyan, philanthropist from the Diaspora, businessman, founder and leader of the Union of Art "Narekatsi".
It was just one of the manifestations of inadequate fiscal policies of the authorities in respect of entrepreneurs dared to found a business in Armenia without sharing with its "rulers". Harutyunyan was was accused of failing to pay 1.5 million drams, and his business overpaid to the budget over 20 million drams. And if Harutyunyan "escaped" from the Armenian Themis by "paying taxes", fines and loss of time and nerves, Bagumyan had to pay for his intractability with his life.
