A court in Armenia has granted the investigation’s motion to extend the arrest of businessman Samvel Karapetyan, his lawyer Liana Gasparyan said.
«The court extended Karapetyan’s arrest for two months,» Gasparyan told reporters.
In June, Karapetyan, the owner of Tashir Group, expressed support for the Armenian Apostolic Church amid its tensions with the Armenian government. On June 18, a court in Yerevan arrested him for two months on charges of public calls to seize power in Armenia. The businessman pleaded not guilty and called the Armenian authorities insolvent. His position in support of the church dissatisfied Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who posted several posts on social media with insults against the clergy and benefactors of the church.
On August 11, the Criminal Court of Appeal of Armenia found the businessman’s June detention unlawful. According to Karapetyan’s lawyer Liana Gasparyan, the appeals court thus confirmed the fact of the businessman’s illegal and unjustified detention, which, she said, is «only one of the illegal actions committed in this criminal process.»
