a) Armenia / b) Constitutional Court / c)  / d) 30-03-2004 / e) DCC-483 / f) On the conformity with the Constitution of the obligations set out in the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (with attached declarations) / g) Tegekagir (Official Gazette) / h) ..

Keywords of the Systematic Thesaurus:

Keywords of the alphabetical index:

Corruption, criminal law / Treaty, constitutional requirements.

Headnotes:

The Criminal Law Convention on Corruption will promote the strengthening of democracy and rule of law in the Republic of Armenia, two principles enshrined in Article 1 of the Constitution, as well as the protection of human rights.

Summary:

On the basis of an appeal lodged by the President of the Republic, the Constitutional Court considered the conformity with the Constitution of the obligations set out in the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (with attached declarations).

The Constitutional Court stated that the Republic of Armenia assumed under the Convention an obligation to take legislative and other measures in order to criminalise:

­ the active and passive bribery of domestic public officials and participation in these offences;

­ the active and passive bribery, when involving members of domestic and foreign public assemblies, foreign public officials, officials of international organisations, members of international parliamentary assemblies or judges and officials of international courts;

­ the active and passive bribery in the private sector; and

­ offences connected with money laundering, which are set out by the Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime.

The Republic of Armenia is also obliged to take appropriate measures in order to provide for criminal or other responsibility for account offences, described in Article 14 of the Convention, as well as for legal persons who are responsible for active bribery, trading in influence and money laundering offences.

The Republic of Armenia has to take appropriate measures in order to establish its jurisdiction over the offences set out in the Convention, when such offences are committed in the territory of the Republic of Armenia or by a citizen, domestic official or member of the domestic assembly of the Republic of Armenia.

The Republic of Armenia, in accordance with Article 29 of the Convention, declares that the domestic bodies that are responsible for the cooperation provided for by the Convention are:

­ the Office of the Prosecutor General as regards cases that are at the pre-trial stage of proceedings; and

­ the Ministry of Justice as regards cases that are at the trial stage of proceedings.

The Court found that the obligations set out in the Convention were in conformity with the Constitution.

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