Karapetian denounced them as a “judicial disgrace” as he briefly spoke to reporters while standing trial on separate coups charges brought right after his first arrest in June 2025. It followed his condemnation of Prime Nikol Pashinian’s efforts to depose Catholicos Garegin II, the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Karapetian as well as 35 other individuals were charged on Wednesday with fraud, embezzlement and money laundering. Armenia’s Investigative Committee claims that Karapetian led a “criminal group” that misappropriated, mainly through dividend payments, over 23 billion drams ($64 million) from Armenia’s national electric utility owned by his Tashir Kapital firm.
It says the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) operator lost 64 billion drams as a result. The tycoon’s aides and political allies have laughed off the accusations, saying that he could not have stolen from himself.
Tashir claims to have invested at least $700 million in ENA and sharply cut its losses since buying the utility from Russia’s RAO UES energy giant in 2015. Tashir has also kept electricity prices in Armenia largely unchanged.
Karapetian was taken into custody one day before he was scheduled to chair a meeting with leaders of other opposition groups aimed at discussing ways of thwarting Pashinian’s plans to enact a new Armenian constitution demanded by Azerbaijan. His Strong Armenia alliance says that this was the main reason for his arrest. Pashinian denied any political motives behind it on Thursday.
Senior members of Armenia’s leading opposition groups meet at Samvel Karapetian’s mansion after his arrest, Yerevan, November 4, 2026.
Senior representatives of Strong Armenia and over a dozen other opposition parties and blocs met in Karapetian’s absence on Wednesday. In an ensuing joint statement, they pledged to jointly fight against the constitution they believe is being imposed on Armenia by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and to prevent other “unilateral concessions” to Baku.
The ruling Civil Contract party lacks a two-thirds majority in the Armenian parliament required for holding a mandatory referendum on the draft constitution. Pashinian repeated on Monday his threats to generate “public pressure” on Strong Armenia and another opposition bloc represented in the parliament, Hayastan, if they continue to block the vote. He earlier threatened to organize demonstrations outside the parliament for that purpose.
“There will be public pressure, but it will be in the opposite direction,” Tigran Abrahamian, a Strong Armenia lawmaker, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Friday. “We will not allow the adoption of Aliyev’s constitution in Armenia.”
Anna Grigorian, Hayastan’s parliamentary leader, made the same point. She expressed confidence that Pashinian will not pull large crowds to pressure the opposition.
“It would be very hard for him to say, ‘Dear people, let’s take to the streets and convince the opposition to adopt Aliyev’s constitution,’” she said.
