YEREVAN. – During the investigation, new information, new data have emerged in recent times due to which a need has come about to continue the investigation. Arsen Ayvazyan, Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Armenia and head of the Amulsar gold mine criminal investigation team, on Friday told this to reporters.
“The basis for continuing the investigation is the text from the Ministry [of Nature Protection], in which there are new data that need to be reviewed, discussed in the context of the criminal case, and to examine that data.
“We are investigating a criminal case that has no precedent in its scope and complexity.”
In his words, new questionings will also be conducted.
“We need to conduct additional questionings and other investigative and judicial actions,” he said, in particular.
And asked about the chances of bringing charges under this criminal case, he replied as follows, above all: “Even one testimony can cause a revolution in the criminal case.”
The Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case into some Nature Protection Ministry officials’ concealing information on environmental pollution in connection with the Amulsar gold mine project.
In 2016, the American-British Lydian Armenia company began construction of the Amulsar gold mine, and announced it will invest more than $400 million in this project.
Environmentalists and activists, however, have kept the roads to Amulsar closed for a long time. They oppose Amulsar’s operation, and argue that the exploitation of this gold mine will have a disastrous impact on the environment.
In the current year, the Armenian government petitioned to the ELARD consulting firm of Lebanon for an expert conclusion on Amulsar. The government announced that it will make a final decision on Amulsar’s operation only after receiving this conclusion.
Subsequently, the ELARD expert conclusion stated that the environmental risks will be manageable if proper monitoring is carried out at Amulsar.
But following a recent videoconference with ELARD experts, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted that several new circumstances had emerged during this videoconference, and which need to be investigated and assessed.
And he instructed the Ministry of Environment to decide whether the Amulsar gold mine project needs to undergo a new Environmental Impact Assessment.
But recently, Pashinyan stated that, at the moment, they had no legal grounds for banning the operation of the Amulsar mine.
