Karapetian was arrested hours after condemning Prime Minister Pashinian’s attempts to depose the top clergy of the Armenian Apostolic Church and vowing to defend it “in our own way.” Pashinian responded to that statement with a series of social media posts in which he effectively admitted ordering law-enforcement authorities to punish the Moscow-based tycoon.
Later on June 17, police attempted to raid Karapetian’s Yerevan villa only to be confronted by scores of his relatives and supporters. With the angry crowd growing bigger in the following hours, masked officers of the National Security Service deployed around the house also refrained from entering it and forcibly taking Karapetian away.
The latter emerged from his residence and was escorted to police custody after midnight. Investigators then searched the house as he was charged with calling for a violent overthrow of the Armenian government. He rejects the accusations as politically motivated.
Karapetian’s pre-trial arrest and the search conducted in his house were sanctioned by the same judge of a Yerevan court of first instance. Acting on an appeal lodged by his lawyers, Armenia’s Court of Appeals ruled late on Wednesday that the search warrant was not lawful.
“The Criminal Court of Appeals found that the June 18 search was illegal, meaning it was not justified and did not meet legal requirements,” one of the lawyers, Aram Vartevanian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Thursday. “There were no justifications for why the search should take place.”
Vartevanian said this is further proof that his prominent client is being subjected to “political persecution.”
The lawyer also revealed that the tycoon again clarified his June 17 statement and denied calling for a violent regime change during an “additional interrogation” initiated by him early this week. The testimony disproved the “most absurd theories” put forward by the investigators, he said without elaborating.
The defense lawyers cited it when they petitioned Prosecutor-General Anna Vardapetian to release Karapetian from custody, added Vartevanian. In his words, Vardapetian has still not responded to the appeal.
Karapetian has remained defiant since his arrest, lambasting Pashinian’s track record and announcing plans to set up a new opposition group that will strive to unseat the premier. Two weeks ago, he was also charged him with tax evasion, fraud and money laundering. He denies those accusations as well.