ARMENIAN TRAFFICKER SENTENCED TO SEVEN YEARS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 000263

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL KTIP KCRM HSTC AM
SUBJECT: ARMENIAN TRAFFICKER SENTENCED TO SEVEN YEARS

REF: A) YEREVAN 244
B) YEREVAN 259
C) YEREVAN 95

YEREVAN 00000263 001.2 OF 002


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SUMMARY
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1. (SBU) On April 2 a Yerevan court sentenced an ex-convict to seven
years in prison for trafficking. This individual was found guilty
of forcing Armenian boys into panhandling (reftel),after being
prosecuted under a trafficking charge. According to the prosecutor
who tried the case, the court's decision established an important
precedent for prosecuting future such crimes as trafficking cases.
END SUMMARY.

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EX-CONVICT PREYS ON YOUNG BOYS FOR PROFIT
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2. (SBU) On April 2 a Yerevan court sentenced to seven years
34-year-old Garik Hovhannisian for his involvement in trafficking.
Hovhannisian, who has two prior convictions for taking part in the
activities of an armed group and causing intentional bodily harm,
was found to have periodically exploited as beggars five boys --
ages 12 to 15 -- between May 2007 and June 2008. One of the boys
was the son of Hovhannisian's common law wife, and the others were
friends of this boy. All of the victims attended special boarding
schools located in Yerevan -- one of them is for children who
exhibit socially dangerous behavior and the other is for children
with special health needs. Initially Hovhannisian exploited only
two children, but later he engaged three more, all of whom he met
through his wife's son.


3. (SBU) According to the case materials, Hovhannisian knew that the
children, who all came from vulnerable families, periodically
skipped school to engage in panhandling on their own. He offered
them a place to sleep and exploited the fact that they did not like
going to school. He intimidated and sometimes beat them (when they
wanted to quit begging or brought little money),and threatened to
kick them out of the room where they stayed at night and return them
to school if they disobeyed. Every morning he drove the children to
downtown "elite" streets and picked them up late at night,
confiscating the money they had gathered -- approximately USD 25 to
40 USD per day. The school administration finally found out about
the children's plight and reported it to the police. The children
have since rejoined their schools.

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PROSECUTORS UPBEAT ABOUT COURT DECISION
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4. (SBU) Police investigators initially charged Hovhannisian with
involving children in anti-social activities (Article 166 in
Armenia's Criminal Code). According to the prosecutors who tried
the case, however, the punishment envisioned by Article 166 did not
correspond with the severity of the crime that was committed, so
they decided to prosecute Hovhannisian under the trafficking statute
that carries stronger sanctions. They also appealed to the court to
consider that the criminal actions prosecutable by Article 166 --
involvement of children in prostitution, beggary, creation of
pornography, among other things -- essentially constitute
trafficking and should be considered as such. (NOTE: In order to
address this inconsistency, the GOAM's inter-agency working group on
anti-trafficking has set up a sub-commission to amend this section
of the code, as well as other existing legal gaps that hinder the
prosecution of trafficking crimes. End note.)


5. (SBU) Although the judge in the case could have rejected the
requalification of the charges against Hovhannisian, he surprised
prosecutors working on the case by opting not to. Moreover, the
judge surprised court observers by quoting in his decision ILO
Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, and by citing the
convention's definitions of the worst forms of child labor
exploitation and trafficking. (COMMENT: This is the first time
that Post has come across such a phenomenon in a trafficking
decision. It suggests judges have become more sensitized to the
crime of trafficking, and we suspect that prosecutors have played a
significant role in this new development. They and other law
enforcement bodies recently told Emboffs that there is now more
pressure from above to try and prosecute trafficking cases. END
COMMENT.)

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LAW ENFORCEMENT ACTIVELY PUBLICIZES CASE
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6. (SBU) Artur Ghambarian, the prosecutor in the case, told Emboffs

YEREVAN 00000263 002.2 OF 002


that the Prosecutor General's office intends to publicize the case
as much as possible. He said they are doing this to alert and deter
other criminals such as Hovhannisyan that their acts constitute
trafficking, and that they will be prosecuted for the crime of
trafficking. The press secretary of the Prosecutor General's office
promptly distributed the case materials to the local media following
the conviction, and a number of of local newspapers have published
articles about the case.

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COMMENT
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7. (SBU) Armenian law enforcement bodies have been particularly
active as of late in detecting, investigating, and prosecuting
trafficking crimes (ref B). That they are proactively publicizing
the Hovhannisian case is another sign of their enhanced focus on
trafficking. These all represent welcome developments, and further
corroborate the commitment that the Deputy Prime Minister gave to
the Ambassador earlier in the year (ref C) to ramp up GOAM
anti-trafficking efforts. If the Hovhannisian conviction holds, the
seven-year sentence should help to establish a positive precedent --
and deterrent -- for Armenian law enforcement and the traffickers
they pursue.

YOVANOVITCH