Samvel Karapetyan had undiagnosed double pneumonia in jail, lawyer says

Panorama

Armenian businessman and philanthropist Samvel Karapetyan developed bilateral pneumonia while held in pretrial detention that went undiagnosed by prison authorities, his lawyer Aram Vardevanyan said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a news conference, Vardevanyan said Karapetyan was examined after being moved to house arrest and doctors found he was in a post-acute stage of bilateral pneumonia dating back about two months. “He was in a penitentiary facility with bilateral pneumonia and it was neither diagnosed nor recorded,” Vardevanyan said, adding that officials had previously told the defense no health problems were found.

Karapetyan was moved from pre-trial detention to house arrest on December 30, with bail, a travel ban and limits on public speech imposed on him. Prosecutors appealed the decision on January 5, the same day Karapetyan was barred from attending his father’s memorial service, Vardevanyan said.

The Anti-Corruption Court of Appeals accepted the appeal on January 12 and is due to issue a ruling on January 16. Vardevanyan criticized the appeal as lacking any legal grounds and questioned the urgency of the review.

He said the defense does not consider the change in detention a “success”, arguing there is no substantive case against Karapetyan.