Samvel Karapetyan starts process of renouncing his Russian and  Cypriot citizenships

ArmInfo.Samvel Karapetyan, chairman of the Strong Armenia party and Russian businessman of  Armenian descent, has begun the process of renouncing his Russian and Cypriot citizenships. Karapetyan announced this on April 15 during a court hearing at the Anti-Corruption Court of Armenia in Yerevan.

"Since I am confident of victory (in the parliamentary elections in  Armenia - ed.), I have begun the process of renouncing my Russian and  Cypriot citizenship," Karapetyan stated during the hearing. It should  be added that during the court hearing, where the businessman's  preventive measure is currently being considered as a matter of  priority, the prosecutor petitioned to extend Karapetyan's house  arrest for another three months. The defense, however, is demanding  the lifting of all restrictive measures against their client. 

As ArmInfo previously reported, the first court hearing in the case  of Samvel Karapetyan, who is charged with tax evasion, money  laundering, large-scale embezzlement, and calls for a coup d'etat,  began in Yerevan on April 15. Thousands of citizens gathered outside  the courthouse to support him.

It should be added that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan,  responding to Samvel Karapetyan's nomination as a candidate for prime  minister by the Strong Armenia party, stated that according to  Armenian law and the Constitution, individuals holding citizenship of  a second country, and in this case, a third, cannot be members of  parliament or run for the post of prime minister.