The preventive measure applied to entrepreneur Samvel Karapetyan has been changed. He has been placed under house arrest and released on bail. This was reported to News of Armenia – NEWS.am by his lawyer, Armen Feroyan.

In addition, bail has been imposed on Karapetyan.

On December 24, the businessman’s defense filed a complaint with the Court of Cassation against the decision of the Court of Appeal dated December 11, which had rejected the appeal against his arrest.

As a reminder, the head of the Tashir Group of Companies, Samvel Karapetyan, was taken into custody in June 2025 after he publicly supported the Armenian Apostolic Church amid a conflict between the clergy and the authorities. Karapetyan did not plead guilty, calling the government’s actions political pressure. Following his statement in support of the Church, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan published a number of insulting comments on social media directed at the clergy and benefactors, which caused a wide public outcry. Later, new charges were brought against the businessman under points 2 and 3 of part 3 of Article 296 of the Criminal Code of Armenia: “money laundering on an especially large scale using official or service-related powers or influence conditioned by them.”