On April 6, 2020, the National Assembly of Armenia adopted the Law on Seizure of Illicit Assets. Project Director of Transparency International Anticorruption Center, Varuzhan Hoktanyan spoke to Factor TV about the newly-adopted legislation.

“Everyone knows there was massive pillaging in the country, however major obstacles might arise during the attempts to return stolen assets. The process of forfeiture of assets has to be very well-founded so that the person the assets were seized from does not demand his property back after the government changes,” the TIAC expert opined.

According to Hoktanyan, previously there were never such demands related to the need to show proof that acquired assets or funds were not illegal. It is possible that following the change of government the previous owners of those assets will demand their property back since there is no proof as to their illegal origins, thus this could become a serious issue.

Original source: Factor.am