YEREVAN, MAY 31, NOYAN TAPAN. The decision of the RA Constitutional Court has provided the citizens, who lost their houses as a result of urban development programs in downtown Yerevan, with a new legal opportunity to protect their rights. The RA Ombudsman Armen Harutyunian stated this during the May 31 press conference dedicated to the 100th day of his term of office. He reminded that citizens have received the right to appeal to court based on a newly discovered evidence until July 18. He believes that irrespective of court rulings, citizens will have document-based grounds to continue defending their rights in the European Court of Human Rights. A. Harutyunian said that he filed a petition to the RA Prime Minister Andranik Margarian, in which, taking into account the necessity to rule out further violations of citizens's rights and to restore their violated rights during implementation of urban development programs, he proposed suspending forced alienation of citizens' property for state needs (until a law regulating such proceses is adopted) and discussing the possibility of paying back the 10% income tax deducted from the sums calculated for owners and users by a compensation agreement. According to the RA Ombudsman, there are problems with unauthorized buildings, as a result of which the rights of other citizens are violated. The RA Ombudsman Staff has sent a certificate based on such cases to the mayor and is waiting for a response. Another certificate was filed to the Head of the RA Department for Compulsory Execution of Court Acts, taking into consideration a large number of complaints about execution of court acts. During the 3 first months of the ombudsman's term of office, the RA Ombudsman Staff's employees paid 15 visits to marzes. The ombudsman received 770 applications, but many complaints were not related to the activity of the RA Ombudsman. In the opinion of A. Harutyunian, the human rights sitiation is not satisfactory in Armenia, "there is much to be done". In response to a question, A. Harutyunian said that he has received an application from Chairman of the Heritage party, former Armenian foreign minister Raffi Harutyunian in connection with the illegal use of his office property. The RA Ombudsman noted that the case will be examined, after which R. Hovhannisian's application qualified as a "Report on Crime" will be sent to the prosecutor's office for investigation.

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