‘We say do the work, they say you’re filing baseless motions’ – Aram Vardevanyan

On December 30, 2025, Anti-Corruption Court judge Sargis Petrosyan ruled to change the detention of Samvel Karapetyan to house arrest, combined with bail, a travel ban, and additional restrictions on public speech, Aram Vardevanyan, a member of the businessman’s defense team, said at a press conference.

“Of course, all this is a significant restriction, but on the other hand we had a situation where, from June 18, 2025 until now, there was one judge who recognized that under the Criminal Procedure Code, detention is not the only preventive measure. Until that point, such alternatives were not being acknowledged at all.

Was this a great success? Naturally, no. In Samvel Karapetyan’s case, there is no success to record, because there is no case here. What happened immediately after that period? On January 5, 2026, the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor’s Office carried out two ‘extremely important’ actions. First, they prohibited Samvel Karapetyan from visiting his father’s grave on Memorial Day. In our value system, this is unheard of—it is truly shameful.

But our colleagues did not stop there that day. They submitted an appeal to the Anti-Corruption Court of Appeal. The question arises: what could they possibly have written in that appeal? There were two sets of issues that the court of first instance had taken as a basis to consider whether detention was subject to cancellation or not. One related to diligence, because from November 18 to December 25 we had submitted so many motions and requests to the Investigative body for them to take action. We asked them to complete the preliminary investigation, to give us the opportunity for a public trial in open court, but they did neither that nor any other action. We say do the work, they say you are filing baseless motions. This is the reality,” the lawyer noted.