Vahe Grigorian: Goals of investigation into Civilitas’s work are unclear

The Civilitas Foundation suffers from the actions and the investigation of the National Security Service since this investigation does not conform to the purposes of criminal procedure and prevents the Foundation from exercising the right to free speech, the Foundation’s lawyer Vahe Grigorian stated during a press conference today.

In his words, the investigation has been going on for ten months, but investigators have not so far revealed anything. The lawyer announced that checks are still underway in the Civilitas Foundation.

We would remind you that the National Security Service of Armenia opened a criminal case against the Civilitas Foundation under Article 190 part 1 point 3 (legitimizing illegally obtained income in particularly large amount) of the Criminal Code. Investigators have examined the fact that 100% of shares of Armenia-based Huntsman Building Products OJSC, owned by US corporations Polymer Materials and Huntsman International, were sold for $2 million, but the tax authorities were not informed about the deal for tax evasion purposes, whole $1,135,000 provided by the American side for charitable activities in Armenia have not been used for this purpose.

Besides, in 2011 Civilitas – in violation of the law and its own regulations - did not submit a statement about the sources of finance and the funds used in the financial year.