Edmon Marukyan, leader of the Enlightened Armenia party, calls businessman Samvel Karapetyan’s detention two-month illegal under law. He brands the legal action as a political process orchestrated personally by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Marukyan criticizes that Karapetyan was detained despite facing only a charge punishable by a fine. “The court should not have remanded him in custody for two months,” he said, noting that even minimal reasonable suspicion wasn’t met under European Court of Human Rights precedent. “[There are] no witnesses in the case, yet the court remanded him to prevent any influence on the proceedings. Pre-trial criminal process cannot include punitive elements,” Marukyan added, describing the overall action as “blatant political persecution.”

He asserted that bringing criminal charges against an innocent person is itself a punishable offense, and all involved must bear responsibility under the law.

Marukyan also emphasized that the Karapetyan case is part of a targeted campaign against the Armenian Apostolic Church aimed at undermining a key national institution. “The Armenian Apostolic Church is the greatest lobbying body in the world. It serves the interests of Azerbaijan and Turkey that this institution be dissolved or at least weakened,” he stated.

Criticizing the authorities’ conduct, he added that the prime minister cannot assume the role of morality enforcer or interfere with citizens’ personal freedoms. “This is a campaign against an institution that says ‘Artsakh,’ that calls for the return of Artsakh people, that says Christian heritage is being destroyed,” Marukyan concluded.

On the night of June 18, Samvel Karapetyan left his Yerevan residence with law enforcement. Later it was announced he had been questioned by the Investigative Committee and subsequently detained for two months on charges of making public calls to seize government authority.

A few hours earlier, Karapetyan had issued a strong statement supporting the Armenian Apostolic Church, saying: “I stand with our church and our people. No matter how they try to defame it—whatever power grid they run—I don’t care about them or their electricity network. Everything will be fine. The people will speak, and they will understand their mistake.”

In response, Prime Minister Pashinyan posted: “Why have the promiscuous ‘clergy’ and their promiscuous ‘benefactors’ become active again? Never mind—we’ll silence them once more. This time, permanently.” He later added that the power grid (Electric Networks of Armenia) should be rapidly nationalized.