Court Deems Samvel Karapetyan's Arrest Unlawful, Not the Detention, Says Defender

The Court of Appeal has deemed the arrest of Samvel Karapetyan unlawful, rather than the detention itself. This was stated by Karapetyan's defender, Aram Vardevanyan, in an interview with Alpha News.

"The decision made by the investigator is no longer lawful, but concerning the arrest. Unfortunately, I have noticed that many of our compatriots have also interpreted the arrest in the context of the institution of detention. The arrest has been recognized as unlawful, however, the detention still exists. The detention, which has been applied for more than 50 days, has had no legal basis from the beginning. In any democratic society, this detention would naturally have been annulled, but I have doubts that a motion will be submitted to extend the detention of Samvel Karapetyan. But what is important is that I want to highlight two facts during this short period that reflect recorded issues within the existing legal and judicial system in Armenia: the unlawful arrest of Samvel Karapetyan and the search of his home. These two facts have already been confirmed by different judges of the Court of Appeal, but if the judge in the Court of Appeal were not Armen Danielyan, who was ‘accidentally’ assigned our appeal against the detention, rest assured we would have had a situation where that disgraceful, illegal detention decision would have been annulled. But since Armen Danielyan was the judge to whom our appeal was ‘accidentally’ assigned, we got what we still have," said Aram Vardevanyan.

He added that the measure of restraint applied to Samvel Karapetyan should be revoked. "If the investigator submits such a motion to the court, then that issue should be resolved by the court. Let’s hope that in this situation, the law will prevail, and the unlawfulness will be subordinated," Vardevanyan said.

It should be noted that one of Samvel Karapetyan’s defenders, Liana Gasparyan, stated today that the Court of Appeal recognized the arrest of Samvel Karapetyan as unlawful.

Samvel Karapetyan was detained on June 18 for a period of two months. According to the Armenian Code of Criminal Procedure, detention is a measure of restraint applied by the court and cannot last more than two months during the preliminary investigation, while an arrest is a short-term deprivation of liberty that cannot last more than 72 hours. Samvel Karapetyan is accused of seizing power and making public calls for the violent overthrow of the constitutional order. Karapetyan denies the charges, while the defense team insists that the accusations against him are unfounded.

Earlier, we reported that the Court of Appeal of Armenia had deemed the arrest of businessman Samvel Karapetyan unlawful.