Samvel Karapetyan's Persecution is a Classic Political Persecution, Says Legal Team

Samvel Karapetyan's legal team has released a statement:

"Philanthropist Samvel Karapetyan was detained on June 18, 2025, by a clearly unfounded and illegal decision, and the charge against him is supposedly calling for the violent seizure of power. On August 15, 2025, Anti-Corruption Court Judge T. Davtyan extended the term of his unlawful detention for another two months without any legal justification or condition, basing the extension on a mere promise made by investigators regarding active actions related to the same alleged charge. Additionally, a complete lack of reasonable suspicion regarding the alleged money laundering and economic crimes was documented.

The appellate anti-corruption court dismissed the appeals filed by the prosecution and the legal team. This means that the absence of reasonable suspicion regarding money laundering and economic crimes was once again confirmed and reinforced; however, the illegal detention that grossly violates the personal freedom of the individual was not lifted. In other words, the behavior that criticizes the Mother See's actions in defense of constitutional and legislative guarantees and which has been grossly violated by the authorities is fully protected by guarantees of freedom of speech, and this is the sole reason Samvel Karapetyan has been detained for over 90 days.

It is also noteworthy that no investigative or procedural actions have been conducted from August 15 until now, despite the fact that, as noted, a promise of active actions was effectively given to the courts. The legal team has submitted cassation appeals and carried out other procedural actions, the results of which will be communicated later. At the same time, we wish to reiterate that the persecution of Samvel Karapetyan has no correlation with the law and legality; minimal legislative guarantees are not preserved, and it is a classic case of political persecution, the evidence of which is indisputable," the statement concludes.