New charges against Samvel Karapetyan 

ArmInfo. The Investigative Committee of Armenia announced the new charges brought against Samvel Karapetyan, a Russian businessman of Armenian descent and head of the Tashir Group of Companies.

As Kima Avdalyan told ArmInfo, the charges against Karapetyan have  been amended and supplemented by paragraphs 2 and 3 of Part 3 of  Article 296 of the Armenian Criminal Code (money laundering on an  especially large scale using official or official powers or influence  obtained through such use).

Samvel Karapetyan's legal team announced today that by continuing to  pursue economic charges, and thus simply ignoring binding court  decisions, the investigation has recently set a new bar for ongoing  lawlessness: bringing yet another economic charge against their  client without any evidence, without even the slightest legal or  legitimate basis.

As a reminder, Samvel Karapetyan was detained in Yerevan on the night  of June 18 by Armenian law enforcement agencies after expressing  support for the Armenian Apostolic Church. This was followed by open  threats from the Prime Minister. On the night of June 19, the Yerevan  Court of General Jurisdiction remanded Samvel Karapetyan in custody  for two months. He is being held in the Yerevan-Kentron Penitentiary  (the notorious "KGB basement" in the National Security Service  building). He is accused of publicly calling for the seizure of power  in the country. Karapetyan denies guilt. Furthermore, in July, the  head of the Tashir Group of Companies was charged with new money  laundering.

On August 15, early in the morning, after nearly 10 hours of  reviewing the investigator's motion, the Anti- Corruption Court  extended Karapetyan's detention for another two months.