Based on the judgment of the Economic Disputes Tribunal of the Republic of Armenia, the store located at 4 Vardanants owned by Italian citizen Marco Lionello Street will be put up for auction on October 8, 2002. Judge A. Matevosyan of the Economic Disputes Tribunal has refused to accept appeals by Lionello lawyer Iveta Badalian.

In her appeal, the lawyer requested that execution of the judgment be deferred for three months. "I find that that the appeal presented must be returned on the following grounds: The originals of the evidence confirming the grounds for the request, as well as the power of attorney signed by Marco Lionello, are not attached to the appeal, and the copies presented are not notarized in accordance with the requirements of the Articles 54 and 88 of the Civil Code of the Republic of Armenia" Judge Matevosyan wrote.

"This is the third time Judge Matevosyan has returned our appeals with groundless explanations and refused to institute court proceedings. The explanation for returning the appeal is that I have not presented evidence confirming the grounds for the appeal, the original of the power of attorney is not attached to the appeal, and the copy presented is not properly notarized. These claims are completely baseless since I presented a copy of the statement sent to the Office of the Prosecutor General and to the Ministry of National Security. If the court did not consider the fact of presenting the request to be credible, than that issue should have been resolved during an actual court hearing, and until the actual court hearing, the judge is obliged to suspend execution of the judgment. As for the power of attorney not being presented in the required way, I presented Judge Matevosyan with the original copy of the power of attorney, which he approved. A copy of the power of attorney was attached to the appeal," lawyer Iveta Badalian says.

When he learned of the Economic Disputes Tribunal's refusal to accept the appeal, Mr. Lionello, in Italy, faxed the appeal with his signature to the Italian Embassy here, asking the embassy to present it to the court. Italian Ambassador Paolo Andrea Trabalza sent a letter requesting that the court accept the appeal of Italian citizen Marco Lionello. The appeal and attached letter from the ambassador were delivered to the court by Marat Mnatsakanian, an officer of the consular division of the embassy.

"At the court I was told that they couldn't accept this fax as it was not the original, but it was the original, received by the fax at the embassy," Mr. Mnatsakanian told us. 
Mr. Lionello was forced to send the appeal by a special delivery service, with identification documents, copies of two passports and his signature attached. The court, however, remained firm; Movsesyan still would not bend, he did not accept the appeal.

Executors of justice violate several legal requirements

On August 20, 2002 the Economic Disputes Tribunal decided to implement its decision on the same day, and on August 29th it sent a letter to Marco Lionello saying that within ten days of receiving the final judgment he must abide by the demands of the court, and inform the court, otherwise his entire Yerevan store would be subject to confiscation. Without checking if a reply had been received from Lionello, the court took a decision on September 19 on the obligatory liquidation of the seized property.

"Before then, September 19th, they sent a memo informing Lionello that an inventory of store merchandise had been taken. In fact, the process had begun before the decision to sell the property was made. The decision to liquidate the confiscated property was made at the direction of the creditor, who claimed that as the debtor had no other property or income, the store at 4 Vardanants should be subject to confiscation. The Hovhanessian's goal is to own the 4 Vardanants store, so that's why the store is going to be confiscated as well," says Iveta Badalian.

Marco Lionello, in addition to his property and income in Italy, owns a store in Gyumri valued at $30,000.

On October 8th Lionello's 160-square meter property at 4 Vardanants Street is to be put up for auction. It is valued at 11,439,00 dram (approx. $19,722). But Lionello paid $46,000 for the store in 1996. How the real estate company managed to put such a low price on a perfectly renovated store in the center of town would be hard to understand if we weren't about to find out who will become the store's new owner.

"We aren't publishing the new owner's name for the time being, the law doesn't allow us to publish 'confidential information' that could disrupt the 'honesty and fairness' of the auction. According to an appraisal done by the Kaloria Real Estate Agency last September, the minimum value of the store is the dram equivalent of $41,500. In a letter dated September 19, 2002, the executor announced that the auction was set for October 8, 2002, in violation of Article 464 of the Civil Code of Armenia, on the timing and procedure of conducting auctions," Badalian says.

No public announcement of the auction has been made, as required by law. And the reason the executors of justice put this particular property of Lionello's up for auction is part of a scenario planned in advance. There is a memo included in the court's decision that states that Lionello has no other property in Armenia, yet he presented the ownership papers of his store in Gyumri. Article 44 of the Law on Services to Insure the Execution of Judgments states "the debtor has the right to propose the order in which his property is seized." But the executors were instructed to follow the orders they had received. The chain must be complete; there cannot be any weak links. The structure is sound and the system functions perfectly. You can't fight "justice" in Armenia.

I don't think political steps will be necessary

We were also interested to know how Italian Ambassador Paolo Andrea Trabalza defended the rights of a citizen of his country.

"It is not acceptable that everything is fine on the political level, but problems arise in the economic field. In Armenia, where the Italian model of small business is admired, something like this took place. What happened to the Italian citizen seems clear. The Italian side made some investment in Armenia, aiming on the one hand to make a profit, and on the other to help Armenia create jobs. If in this case as well the Armenian court system punished the Italian investor, it is not the first time. The first was the story connected with the Italian restaurant. This can become very dangerous, and it will have a boomerang effect on Armenia. Here the situation is different, they are attempting to cheat an Italian investor. I appeal to the Armenian side, which is a shareholder along with the Italian investor- let them be satisfied with what they have already gotten. And let them not get carried away by their desires.

In general, the more lawyers are involved in the case, the more money will be spent. It would have been better if the two sides had gotten together and found a peaceful way out. Lionello appealed to us only recently. At the time, the Italian chose to solve his problems in the Armenian courts. We can see that the facts are very clear. Having no reason to suspect the representatives of the Armenian court system, I don't think political steps will be necessary. We must, in fact, appeal to the highest bodies. We hope that publications in the press will have more influence than our appeals."

To be continued.

P.S. After the publication of "Italian Adventures in Armenia" Telman Hovhanessian, one of the plaintiffs, visited Aravot's editorial office and presented a letter and some documents refuting the facts described in the article. These will be published, and we will certainly discuss them.

P.P.S. On October 8th the160-square meter property at 4 Vardanants Street owned by Italian citizen Marco Lionello was put up for auction. After a brief bidding session it was sold. We met with the buyer, Derenik Harutiunyan, after the auction. He is indeed a lucky man, for with no difficulty at all he has just bought a perfectly renovated store in the center of town for $18,500 (Lionello paid $46,000 for the store in 1996). He says he is a businessman, engaged in trade, and has now decided to operate a store in Yerevan. We have found out who the real owner of the store is, but for the time being we will refrain from making it public.