Armenia rocked by pedophilia scandal

A child sex scandal allegedly involving a prominent businessman has shocked Armenia, prompting charges the ex-Soviet state is failing to combat pedophilia due to ridiculously light sentencing.

Prosecutors fear that the country risks becoming a hub for international child sex tourism like certain Asian countries unless rapid action is taken to make punishment more rigorous. Armenian media widely publicized allegations about sex crimes against teenagers by a businessman who until recently was also an adviser to the country's prime minister.

The businessman, mining company owner Serop Der-Boghossian, has denied the allegations and said that his accusers were attempting to blackmail him. The case drew even more attention when Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian wrote about it on his personal blog on Monday, promising that the investigation would be "swift, comprehensive and transparent."

Prosecutor Artur Gambarian said "the prosecutor's office is currently collecting materials about Serop Der-Boghossian and will shortly take decision whether to initiate or not proceedings against Der-Boghossian on pedophilia charges."

He also called for tougher sentences, saying that the majority of people convicted of sex crimes against children are not jailed but merely fined. "It's intolerable," he told AFP. "Pedophiles are not rigorously punished by the law, which enables the growth of violence against children."

Sex crimes against children under 16 are punishable by fines or prison sentences of up to two years, according to Armenian legislation. There were 18 such convictions in 2009, but only three people were sent to prison, Gambarian said.

"If the laws are not changed and the punishments for pedophiles remain this soft, it is not impossible that pedophiles from other countries, learning that they may go unpunished after committing a crime, will come to Armenia," he said.

Child protection experts in Armenia - a socially conservative Christian country - believe that many pedophile cases go unprosecuted because parents are often reluctant to report sex crimes against children. Tatevik Bezhanian from the organisation People In Need said that the cases actually prosecuted were only the tip of the iceberg. "We will never learn about majority of (such) crimes as Armenian families keep sexual crimes against their children secret," she said.


/Hurriyet Daily News/