The circumstances of the illegal arrest of world-famous businessman and philanthropist Samvel Karapetyan will be examined at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), one of Karapetyan’s defense attorneys, Liana Gasparyan, announced at a press conference on Tuesday.

Gasparyan recalled that the first detention decision was ruled as illegal by Armenia’s domestic court; that is, the criminal case was initially illegal. Karapetyan was detained on suspicion of calling for a change of power in Armenia. But realizing that it would have problems and would not be able to obtain detention legally in court, the investigative body had changed the aforesaid charge after the arrest.

“All these circumstances will be examined at the European Court of Human Rights. The investigative body changed the grounds for the detention and appeared in court with other reasons so that the judge could apply the detention,” the lawyer explained.

According to her, the investigative body has not carried out any investigation for a month, and the question arises: why is Karapetyan still under illegal detention?

“Of course, it is clear to everyone why he is being subjected to political persecution. In my practice, I have not encountered a case with so many violations. We call on the ‘implementers of justice’ [in Armenia] to stop the violations,” the attorney said.

According to Samvel Karapetyan’s defense team, the additional charge of money laundering is absurd and aims to damage his reputation.