Political Prisoner Samvel Karapetyan Sent Back to Detention After Appeals Court Reverses House Arrest

BREAKING: Political prisoner Samvel Karapetyan is being transferred from his home back to the NSS pre-trial detention facility after the Anti-Corruption Court of Appeal overturned the decision placing him under house arrest.

Karapetyan had been under house arrest since December 30, after spending six months in pre-trial detention. The appellate court annulled the ruling by Judge Sargis Petrosyan and reinstated detention as a preventive measure.

Karapetyan was arrested on June 18, 2025, shortly after publicly warning Nikol Pashinyan that red lines had been crossed in the campaign against the Armenian Apostolic Church and other core national institutions. He stated that society would defend its faith, country, and constitutional order.

Pashinyan responded publicly on Facebook. That same day, his government opened a criminal case accusing Karapetyan of alleged public calls to seize power and undermine the constitutional order. His defense rejects the charges as retaliation for political speech, not any concrete or violent act.

The arrest coincided with Pashinyan’s escalating confrontation with the Armenian Apostolic Church. Over recent months, he has demanded the Catholicos’s resignation, deliberately refused to use his ecclesiastical title, appeared at liturgies with defrocked priests, and engaged with dissenting clergy in what many view as an effort to fracture the Church from within.

Samvel Karapetyan is one of the Armenian Apostolic Church’s principal benefactors. His public defense of the Church placed him in direct opposition to the government and made him a political target.

At the same time, pressure intensified on Karapetyan’s business interests. Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA), the country’s main electricity distributor owned by Karapetyan’s Tashir Group, was subjected to inspections, fines, and regulatory pressure. Romanos Petrosyan was installed to take control of the company, and in November 2025 the Public Services Regulatory Commission revoked ENA’s license, completing what many observers describe as a politically driven seizure.