The defense team of Strong Armenia party leader Samvel Karapetyan plans to appeal a court decision ordering his pretrial detention for one month, his lawyer Armen Feroyan has said.
According to Feroyan, the investigative authorities’ motion seeking Karapetyan’s detention was unlawful and lacked legal justification, Panorama.am reports.
“It cannot withstand legal scrutiny, but the court decided to grant the motion for a period of one month. We believe this is an unlawful and unfounded decision, and we will certainly appeal it. It clearly contains political motives,” the lawyer said.
Early on November 4, officers of Armenia’s Investigative Committee began searching the homes of Samvel Karapetyan and Narek Karapetyan, who leads the Strong Armenia parliamentary faction.
The Investigative Committee later announced that simultaneous searches had been conducted at 65 addresses as part of a criminal investigation handled by its Main Department for the Investigation of Economic Crimes and Smuggling.
The search of Samvel Karapetyan’s home lasted approximately seven hours, after which National Security Service officers took him to the Investigative Committee.
A court subsequently ordered his pretrial detention for one month.
