Samvel Karapetyan's detention unlawful, lawyer reiterates

Lawyer Aram Vardevanyan has reiterated that businessman and philanthropist Samvel Karapetyan has been unlawfully detained since June 18, following an interview in which he defended the Armenian Apostolic Church and criticized the Armenian leadership's unconstitutional campaign against the church.

"Since June 18, Samvel Karapetyan has been in custody solely because of that interview. In other words, he has been arrested without any legal or legitimate grounds, purely as a result of political persecution," Vardevanyan said in a statement on Tuesday.

He dismissed the charges of calling for violent seizure of power as baseless, emphasizing that Karapetyan's remarks in the interview contained no call for violence or any unlawful action.

Vardevanyan has formally appealed to Prosecutor General Anna Vardapetyan, calling for Karapetyan's immediate release and describing the continued detention as unjustified and unlawful.