Businessman and philanthropist Samvel Karapetyan’s legal team has filed an appeal with the appellate court against his remand decision, confirmed by his attorney Ruben Hakobyan, reports Pastinfo.
A criminal charge was filed based solely on a video lasting a few seconds. The defense maintains that Karapetyan’s words contain no criminal element whatsoever and therefore the charge is unlawful.
Yerevan’s general jurisdiction criminal court, presided over by Judge Artak Karapetyan, granted the investigator’s request to remand Samvel Karapetyan. He is accused of publicly calling to seize state power, although the defence says he merely made a statement defending the Armenian Apostolic Church in response to attacks against it.
On the night of June 18, businessman Samvel Karapetyan left his Yerevan residence with law enforcement. He was later revealed to be under questioning at the Investigative Committee and was detained for two months that evening, charged with making a public call to usurp the powers of the Armenian government.
A few hours earlier, Karapetyan had issued a statement supporting the Armenian Apostolic Church: “I am with our Church, with our people. No matter how hard they try to discredit it, no power network… I don’t care about them or their electric grid. Everything will be fine. The people will speak, and they will understand their mistake.”
In response, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan posted: “Why have the immoral ‘clergymen’ and their immoral ‘benefactors’ become active? No worries — we will silence them again. Permanently.” He later added that the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) should be nationalized swiftly.
