Samvel Karapetyan is in pre-trial detention after being arrested in June last year on charges of inciting revolution and money laundering.
Three people have been detained outside a court in the Armenian capital Yerevan as protesters call for the release of jailed billionaire and government critic Samvel Karapetyan, Sputnik Armenia has reported.
Clashes broke out between protesters and law enforcement officers as the court debated whether to extend the tycoon’s pretrial detention, as seen in a video posted by the station on Friday.
The businessman, who also has Russian citizenship, was arrested in June last year on suspicion of inciting revolution and money laundering. Karapetyan, who had publicly condemned Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s crackdown on Armenian Apostolic Church clergy, dismissed the process as politically motivated.
Tensions between the prime minister and the national church began in 2020 when his archbishop, Catholicos Garegin II, called on Pashinyan to resign after Armenia handed over land to neighboring Azerbaijan. The decision sparked massive protests at the time, with protesters accusing Pashinyan of betraying Armenia’s interests.
The prime minister responded by arguing that Garegin is not suitable for his position. Several senior leaders have since been arrested by authorities on suspicion of abuse of power and fraud.
Last October, Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan was sentenced to two years in prison for inciting a revolution – a case he described as politically motivated.
That same month, Vardan Ghukasyan, the mayor of Gyumri and a vocal critic of Pashinyan’s pro-Western foreign policy, was detained pending trial on bribery charges.
Critics have accused the prime minister of using the judiciary to suppress opposition and consolidate power as popularity waned.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the current political turmoil in Armenia is great “Interior,” Moscow is closely monitoring developments there.
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