The Criminal Court of Appeal of Armenia on Friday ruled in favor of the defense lawyers' appeal against the decision of the Court of First Instance to arrest Ara Saghatelyan, the former Chief of Staff of the National Assembly, and he was released.

Saghatelyan was arrested on February 21, by the decision of the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction. The court had stated that his detention was illegal, but nevertheless made a decision to have him arrested.

Saghatelyan is accused along the lines of the "Gagik Soghomonyan" fake Facebook page case. He is charged under the Criminal Court articles on inciting national, racial or religious animosity by an organized group, making public calls for violence, publicly justifying or propagating violence, and violating the rules of publication or dissemination of information during martial law.

Analyst and ex-MP Karen Bekaryan, manager of the office of the "International Center for the Development of Parliamentarism" NGO Mher Avagyan, and citizen Aram Sargsyan also are defendants in the aforesaid case. And Sargsyan is still under arrest.