ARMENIA PROSECUTES FIRST LABOR TRAFFICKING CASE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 001716 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/CARC, G/TIP, DRL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL KTIP KCRM HSTC AM SUBJECT: ARMENIA PROSECUTES FIRST LABOR TRAFFICKING CASE (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Please protect accordingly. -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (SBU) On December 12, a court in Gyumri ruled on the first-ever labor trafficking case in Armenia, sentencing the trafficker to five years of imprisonment and financial compensation for the victims. According to testimony, the victims had been trafficked to Russia to work construction near Almetevsk, Tatarstan, under slave-like conditions. This is a rare recorded case in the midst of increasing rumors about Armenian men trafficked to Russia. This is also the first trafficking in persons case (including the more common sex trade cases) in which the court ruled to reimburse the financial damages. The USG-funded Hope and Help NGO, which had discovered the victims, provided them assistance and helped them to take their case to the court. END SUMMARY. -------------- THE VERDICT -------------- ¶2. (SBU) The Prosecutor General's Office began its investigation in September, citing the new trafficking statute, Article 132-1, which carries a punishment of seven to 12 years in prison. However, the case is subject to a grandfathering clause because the crime was committed before the new statute took effect. The trafficker's five-year sentence is within the limits of the old statute's accompanying punishments of four to seven years. The court also ruled that the trafficker must pay financial damages to the three victims: a total of USD 11,000, which is the amount they should have been paid for their labor in Russia. -------------- TRAFFICKER EXPLOITS OWN FAMILY -------------- ¶3. (SBU) The trafficker, Ararat Muradyan, was convicted of luring his own cousin, Robert Karapetyan, Robert's 16-year-old son Edgar Karapetyan, and another relative, Ashot Grigoryan, to Almetevsk in April 2004, with promises of construction work paying USD 300-400 per month. After the victims arrived in Russia, they said, Ararat Muradyan took their passports and made them work long hours, and sometimes through the night, with only bread and pasta for sustenance. They said he kept them locked down and did not allow them access to the phone. Muradyan did not pay the victims, but told them he sent their monthly earnings directly to their families. -------------- THE DIFFICULT RETURN -------------- ¶4. (SBU) When, months later, the victims discovered that no money had been sent to Armenia, they tried to escape. They said Muradyan beat Grigoryan and the younger Karapetyan, threatening to kill the boy and send his head to his mother. The mother, who had not heard from them during their entire stay in Russia, contacted Armenian and Russian state authorities to find them until they finally were discovered by the Migration Service of Tatarstan, who deported them to Armenia in August 2005. -------------- "HOPE AND HELP" KEEPS UP TO ITS NAME -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Nora Mnatsakanyan, the deputy head of Hope and Help, which discovered and assisted the victims, said she was satisfied with the verdict. Mnatsakanyan said she hoped that this case, despite being a labor trafficking case, would become a precedent for other trafficking victims to win financial damages in court. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶5. (SBU) This case is a hallmark not only because it is the first documented and prosecuted case of labor trafficking, but because of the financial compensation awarded to the victims. The financial compensation is very important for the social reintegration of victims, who usually come from the poorest layers of society. The GOAM should be praised for this verdict, and be encouraged to apply it as a precedent in other trafficking cases. There are constant rumors about how Armenian men (thousands of whom head to Russia seeking seasonal work) become victims of labor trafficking. We hope that this case, which has received some media coverage, will encourage other labor trafficking victims to come forward. END COMMENT. YEREVAN 00001716 002 OF 002 GODFREY