ARMENIA MUST PROSECUTE OFFICIALS INVOLVED IN HUMAN
TRAFFICKING, US STATE DEPARTMENT SAYS
13-06-2007 22:30:00 | Armenia | Social
YEREVAN, JUNE 13, NOYAN TAPAN. It is for the third year
that Armenia has been included in the US State Department's list
of the second - medium group of countries posing danger in terms
of human trafficking and thus subject to control, Radio Liberty
reported.
According to the 2006 report of the US State Department,
Armenia does not make enough effort to establish identities of
trafficking victims and to protect them, as well as to reveal
possible involvement of officials in cases of human trafficking.
Particularly, the Prosecutor General's Office conducted an
inadequate investigation into the case of an employee of the
body for the fight against human trafficking, as a result of
which he was found not guilty, and the matter ended in his
demoting and transferring to another body.
Armenia must investigate, prosecute and convict the
government officials involved in human trafficking, the State
Department states.
According to the report, in 2006, 16 cases of trafficking
were investigated in Armenia, which was more by 2 cases than in
the previous year. 13 persons were prosecuted in connection with
human trafficking cases last year - by 3 persons fewer than in
2005. All 13 persons were sentenced, 9 of them - to 4-5 years'
imprisonment.