Record 4 billion dram bail set for businessman Samvel Karapetyan,  says lawyer

ArmInfo. Samvel Karapetyan, a Russian-Armenian businessman and leader of the Strong Armenia party, has been hit with the largest bail in Armenia's history, 4 billion drams (over $10 million), for his transfer to  house arrest, according to Aram Vardevanyan, Karapetyan's lawyer. The statement was made  during a court hearing regarding Karapetyan's preventive measure.

"Karapetyan has been detained for 10 months, five of which were  solely on charges of 'calling for actions.' "Regarding the other  charges, there is no reasonable suspicion concerning the episode  involving an alleged economic crime," the lawyer stated, adding that  the substance of the charges and the overall conduct of the  proceedings raise serious questions.

Vardevanyan filed a motion to lift the preventive measure of house  arrest, emphasizing that there are no grounds for any preventive  measures against his client.

He questioned the logic of the current restrictions: "Why would my  client obstruct or interfere in a trial that is clearly political,  illegal, and undermines the law? Furthermore, Karapetyan was assigned  the largest bail in Armenian history-4 billion drams. Why would he  violate those conditions? Even a single dram would have been  sufficient to ensure proper conduct."

The defense requested the court lift the house arrest while  maintaining a substantial bail, though they noted the legal reasoning  behind such a massive sum remains unclear.  "We do not object to  increasing the bail to 400 million drams (approximately $1 million)  provided the house arrest is lifted. To this day, Karapetyan has been  unable even to visit his father's grave," Vardevanyan said.