The crime report on the activity of Teghout CJSC was sent to the Prosecutor’s Office of Lori Province
11:03, March 1, 2018 | News, Own news
On February 21, 2018 the RA General Prosecutor’s Office responded to the crime report submitted by Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office with regard to the activity of Teghout CJSC. HCA Vanadzor’s letter and the attached files were sent to the Prosecutor’s Office of Lori Province.
On January 23, 2018 HCA Vanadzor applied to the RA General Prosecutor’s Office with the request to initiate a criminal case and to prosecute persons who performed the actions posing a threat to the safety of the surrounding environment.
The report of crime was based on the article published on hetq.am on January 21, 2018, which contained information on the filling of the tailing dump of the company and the directing of tailings to the Shnogh and Debed Rivers.
There was also information on the walls of the tailing dump cracking.
Parallel to submitting a report, HCA Vanadzor sent an inquiry to the RA Ministry of Emergency Situations on the credibility of the information in the published article and the measures undertaken by the Ministry in that direction.
In a letter dated February 8, 2018, the MES informed that studies have been conducted and it was found out that there are no cracks on the tailing dump, and the company has not been operating since January 12, 2018. However, the Ministry did not deny that water was discharged from the plant into the Shnogh River. According to the response of the Ministry, the representative of the company informed that water was discharged on January 21, when the plant had already ceased its operation, and the cleared water was discharged into the Shnogh River two hours later.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations informed that the last expert examination at Teghout CJSC and the tailing dump was carried out on March 6, 2017.
“As regards the halting of the operation of Teghout CJSC, we inform that the state non-commercial organization “National Center of Technical Security” is not competent to carry out any work at a hazardous production facility without the application of the person operating the facility and without a contract; therefore, we cannot express any views on the conformity of the non-professional information contained in the publication,” reads the response of the Ministry.