Armenian court rules Karapetyan’s arrest unlawful
On Monday, the lawyers of detained Russian–Armenian tycoon Samvel Karapetyan announced that the Armenian Court of Criminal Appeals decided that Karapetyan’s arrest ‘was unlawful’. In turn, Armenian authorities vowed to appeal the decision.
Karapetyan was detained on 18 June, a day after making a statement in defence of the church in its confrontation with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Following his viral remarks, his house in Yerevan was raided and he was taken into custody and charged with calling for the usurpation of power in Armenia.
In the aftermath of his arrest, after several raids and inspections in his businesses in Armenia, Karapetyan faced a second set of charges — money laundering.
On Monday, Karapetyan’s lawyer Lianna Gasparyan noted in her Facebook post that with the court’s verdict considering Karapetyan’s arrest ‘unlawful’ confirmed the tycoon was ‘illegally held in detention’ for over nine hours on 18 June.
‘Despite this, Samvel Karapetyan has remained in detention for 53 days now. His detention has not been lifted as of this moment, and most likely, under the current circumstances, a motion to extend it will be submitted’, Karapetyan’s legal team wrote in a separate Facebook post.
The lawyers further noted that the Court of Criminal Appeals previously ruled that the authorities’ raid of his house was unlawful as well.
Following statements by Karapetyan’s team, the Prosecutor General’s Office vowed to appeal the court’s decision.
In an interview with state-run media Armenpress, the Armenian authorities dismissed
Armenpress quoted the Prosecutor General’s Office as saying that Karapetyan was released following his initial arrest on 18 June and was later detained ‘on a different basis, which they claimed was recognized as lawful, including through the outcome of the subsequent appeal’.
However the authorities did not elaborate on the details of the case.
The contradictory statements of the Armenian government and Karapetyan’s lawyers over the court ruling are not unprecedented, with the two sides most recently disputing over what appears to be their interpretation of an international arbitration case regarding Karapetyan’s management of the Electric Networks of Armenia.
Controversial lawyer arrives to defend ‘children of Christ’
Additionally, on Monday, Kareptyan’s defence group shared a video showing Robert Amsterdam, a controversial American lawyer, arriving in Yerevan. Amsterdam was previously hired by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government for a case against Erdoğan’s foe, Fethullah Gülen, and was also involved in a number of other controversial cases.
In a press briefing upon his arrival, Amsterdam said that his ‘primary mission in Armenia is to defend the church, defend those men and supporters of the church, children of Christ who have been wrongfully detained’.
Amsterdam was apparently referring to the two archbishops — Bagrat Galstanyan and Mikael Ajapahyan — detained on charges of making calls to overthrow the government or planning to do so through a coup. Amsterdam did not explicitly mention their names, but he did reference Karapetyan directly.
‘When people are religious and care about their country and religion, the way Mr. Karapetyan and others care and unfortunately have had their businesses raided and attacked, there is something wrong’, Amsterdam said.
He said that dialogue between the government and the church was needed, adding that he arrived in Armenia ‘hopeful’ to begin a conversation, that ‘charges can be dismissed’, and to ‘protect the church’.
A press release issued by Amsterdam’s law firm clarified that he is representing the Armenian Apostolic Church.
