Samvel Karapetyan faces new 'baseless' charges

Businessman and philanthropist Samvel Karapetyan has been hit with new charges of money laundering through several companies, allegations his legal team has rejected as "completely groundless".

Karapetyan was initially detained in June on charges of making public calls for the seizure of power and has been placed in pre-trial detention for two months.

In a new statement on Wednesday, Samvel Karapetyan’s Defense Council linked the charges to his June 17 statement in support of the Armenian Apostolic Church, which was immediately followed by public threats from Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, a criminal case and his arrest within 24 hours.

The legal team argues there is no evidence of Karapetyan’s direct or indirect involvement in any alleged wrongdoing.

“Recently, money laundering charges have been increasingly used as a tool for political retaliation in Armenia,” the council stressed.