Samvel Karapetyan to be sent to a pretrial detention center for 1 month – court ruling

The court decided to again arrest the leader of "Mighty Armenia" Samvel Karapetyan for one month.

This was reported by his lawyer Armen Feroyan, Sputnik Armenia reports.

On the morning of November 4, security forces conducted searches at 65 addresses, including at the homes of Samvel Karapetyan (who was under house arrest) and his nephew, the head of the parliamentary faction "Mighty Armenia" Narek Karapetyan. After the search, NSS officers took Samvel Karapetyan away from his home.

Later, Armenia's Investigative Committee issued a statement claiming that, as a result of the actions of Karapetyan and persons associated with him, the company "Electric Networks of Armenia" was caused damage in the amount of 64.5 billion drams (about $177 million). According to the investigation, Karapetyan and persons acting on his instructions in 2016-2024 were found to have exceeded official powers in the private sector, embezzled property and laundered money on an especially large scale.

Commenting on his uncle's detention, Narek Karapetyan said that the party leader planned to make a statement on November 5 and present an alternative to the authorities' policy (presumably, on the issue of the Constitution and negotiations with Azerbaijan). But the actions of law enforcement officers disrupted these plans. He believes that the main task of initiating the new criminal proceedings is to "convince" (as Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan put it) the opposition to agree to holding a referendum on the new Constitution.

Recall that Samvel Karapetyan had been under house arrest since December 2025.

Karapetyan is accused of money laundering on an especially large scale using power or official authority or influence stemming from them (paragraphs 2 and 3 of part 3 of Article 296 of Armenia's Criminal Code).