During a three-day meeting for heads of prosecutors’ offices of districts and provinces, President Kh.Battulga met with prosecutors on January 16 to request an investigation of former President Ts.Elbegdorj. The president told the prosecutors that some people who served as high ranking officials made attempts to create an illegal deal for selling the Tavan Tolgoi coal mine to foreigners. Kh.Battulga underlined that former President Ts.Elbegdorj and former Prime Minister M.Enkhsaikhan, who was serving as Ch.Saikhanbileg’s Cabinet minister, made attempts to create a deal to sell off Tavan Tolgoi, the biggest coal mine in Mongolia.
He stressed that in 2016, former Prime Minister J.Erdenebat made an attempt to transfer the ownership of Tavan Tolgoi coal mine to foreigners for 100 years. At the meeting, Kh.Battulga handed over a proposal to investigate the involvement of former high-ranking state officials, including Ts.Elbegdorj, in illegal attempts for creating a Tavan Tolgoi deal to General Prosecutor M.Enkh-Amgalan.
Kh.Battulga said, “On behalf of myself as a Mongolian citizen, I asked General Prosecutor M.Enkh-Amgalan to investigate issues surrounding Tavan Tolgoi as I believe that every Mongolian citizen should benefit from the nation’s underground assets, especially since we cannot afford to see few people selling off Tavan Tolgoi to foreigners.”
During the meeting, the president criticized prosecutors for their “ineffective” operations. The president said that prosecutors have not made efforts for resolving the “60 billion MNT” case to raise money for campaign finance by selling off government positions before the 2016 parliamentary election, dealing with the controversial issues regarding the 49 and 51 percent stakes of Erdenet Mining Corporation, and bringing those who profited from air pollution by offering false solutions to justice. Kh.Battulga noted that since he instructed prosecutors last year to address challenging issues that the public is concerned about, but prosecutors have not fulfilled his instructions. He also asked General Prosecutor M.Enkh-Amgalan to hold accountability to Deputy General Prosecutor B.Amgalanbaatar whose wife took a loan out from the Fund to Develop Small and Medium-sized Enterprise.
The president reminded the prosecutor that prosecutors’ fair operations should begin justice, and prosecutors should not seek justice from elsewhere.
General Prosecutor M.Enkh-Amgalan underlined that prosecution is an institution that enforces the law in an independent way. M.Enkh-Amgalan said, “As long as I am serving as the general prosecutor, prosecutors must not impose illegal penalty to an individual to protect a particular interest and on illegal order, and those who violated the law cannot be freed on the illegal orders of others.”
