The Office of the Prosecutor-General reportedly said it will appeal against the decision that came just over a month after the same court extended Karapetian’s pre-trial arrest by two more months. An appeals court upheld that extension last week.
A lawyer for Karapetian, Aram Vartevanian, said his client will post bail before moving to house arrest. Vartevanian did not reveal the sum mandated by the judge. Karapetian left a prison in central Yerevan later in the evening.
Karapetian was arrested on June 18 hours after condemning Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s attempts to depose the top clergy of the Armenian Apostolic Church and vowing to defend it “in our way.” The statement provoked a series of furious social media posts by Pashinian. The latter pledged to “deactivate” the 60-year-old tycoon believed to be the world’s richest Armenian.
“Now I will interfere with you in my own way, you scoundrel … I hope the taste of the state will remain in your mouth,” Pashinian wrote shortly before Karapetian’s arrest.
Law-enforcement authorities claim Karapetian called for a violent overthrow of the government. They also charged him with tax evasion, fraud and money laundering in July after he decided to set up a new opposition movement that will run in the elections due in June 2026.
The movement unveiled in August and named Mer Dzevov (In Our Way) is now expected to be one of the ruling Civil Contract party’s main election challengers. In a November 19 statement issued from prison, Karapetian declared that it will topple Armenia’s ruling “small clique.”
Karapetian’s nephew and right-hand man Narek, who coordinates Mer Dzevov’s activities, reacted to his release from prison with a short Facebook post: “IN OUR WAY.”
Born and raised in Armenia, Karapetian has mainly lived Russia since the early 1990s, making a fortune estimated by the Forbes magazine at over $4 billion. He has financed many charity projects in Armenia as well as Nagorno-Karabakh and made lavish donations to the church.
Although Pashinian’s political allies have accused Karapetian of plotting to topple the Armenian government on the Kremlin’s orders, Moscow has refrained from openly calling for his release. Still, the Russian Foreign Ministry signaled on December 16 concerns about his continuing detention. Six days later, Pashinian met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saint Petersburg on the sidelines of a summit of the leaders of ex-Soviet states.