Number of anti-corruption criminal cases up in Armenia

Armenian Anti-Corruption Committee Chairman Sasun Khachatryan has said that the amount of anti-corruption cases initiated in Armenia is growing.

Speaking at the Armenian Forum of Democracy, held in Yerevan, the chairman noted that the committee has so far recruited less than half of its members - due to the strict criteria for admission, Caliber.Az reports per Armenian media.

At the same time, the Committee is examining 1,003 cases, of which 61 cases have been sent to courts with indictments against 135 people. That's a lot of work, given that the committee now has only 40 investigators, Khachatryan added.

"Compared to last year, the number of cases has increased, and as strange as it may sound, this is good, because corruption crimes, latent in nature, are beginning to be revealed," Khachatryan said.

According to him, the criminal case is a means, and the goal is to create awareness in society about the inevitability of punishment in case of a crime. Without this understanding, no matter how strict the punishment is, corruption won't become less of a problem, he said.