The 32nd meeting of the Coordinating Council of Prosecutors General of the Commonwealth of Independent States was held today in Minsk with the participation of the RA Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan.

 

The work done by the CIS member states in the fight against a number of transnational crimes in the CIS region, the general state of the implementation of international agreements in these areas were discussed.

 

An assessment was made of the cooperation programs approved by the CIS member states for 2021 in a number of areas, the effectiveness of the implementation of the envisaged measures, and the practice of improving the interaction of the prosecution authorities. A number of documents relating to the activities of the Coordinating Council of Prosecutors General of the CIS member states have been adopted.

 

During the meeting, RA Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan presented the legislative and institutional reforms being carried out in Armenia in order to increase the effectiveness of the fight against money laundering, as well as the problems arising from the imperfection of international cooperation structures.

 

In particular, Artur Davtyan stressed that the fight against the legalization of assets obtained by criminal means, the issue of their return to legal economic circulation is one of the main priorities of the RA Prosecutor's Office. Armenia has acceded to all international conventions on the acquisition of money, money laundering by criminal means, on their detection and confiscation, and as a full member or observer participates in several international platforms to combat this crime.

 

The RA Prosecutor General said that the fight against money laundering in Armenia is carried out at the level of a national strategy based on advanced international standards, expert opinions, and the criminal liability for this crime is defined in the RA Criminal Code on the basis of international legal definitions, which have significantly improved practice. In particular, the number of cases on this crime investigated by the competent authorities of the Republic of Armenia increased by 5 times in 2021 compared to 2017.

 

Despite such positive trends, according to the RA Prosecutor General, the results are still not considered satisfactory, the main reason for which is the unsatisfactory state of international legal cooperation in criminal cases of this nature, taking into account that most of the property acquired by criminal means is removed from the country . The main problems are related to differences in legal norms, legal interpretations and banking data protection structures in different countries for the disclosure of this type of crime, which do not allow for full-fledged investigations.

 

Artur Davtyan considered it necessary to develop and implement unified legal principles for combating money laundering, which is a serious global problem, and to create independent legal platforms for international cooperation, including within the CIS.

 

He informed about the full readiness of the RA Prosecutor's Office, based on the experience of the RA, to participate in the process of improving the international legal structures against "money laundering".