Samvel Karapetyan suffered double pneumonia in pretrial detention -  lawyer

ArmInfo. Samvel Karapetyan, a Russian-Armenian businessman and the head of the Tashir Group of Companies, had suffered double pneumonia while in custody, as stated lawyer Aram Vardevanyan during a press conference in Yerevan.

The lawyer pointed out that it became known after the businessman's pretrial detention measure was changed. "While under house arrest, Samvel Karapetyan visited a medical facility, where he underwent an examination, that he had been unable to get for seven months. The results revealed that he had suffered from double pneumonia two months earlier," the lawyer noted.

Vardevanyan expressed outrage that the illness had not been diagnosed earlier and said that Karapetyan himself had never complained about the conditions of his detention. "At the same time, we submitted an appeal, and the officials responsible for ensuring medical examinations in prison assured us that Karapetyan had no health problems," Vardevanyan added.

Defense attorney Armen Feroyan added that the businessman had complained of feeling cold in his prison cell throughout his time being there, a topic he had prohibited his defense team from discussing publicly.  He also reported that, in addition to pneumonia, Karapetyan was diagnosed with coronavirus two days ago, a condition he described as severe. "All of this confirms that the poor prison conditions are precisely what led to this condition," Feroyan asserted.

Additionally, the lawyer noted that even stricter measures have been imposed on Karapetyan under house arrest. Feroyan pointed out the serious restrictions placed on the businessman. He stated that Karapetyan is prohibited from calling his children, which, as the lawyer noted, would be entirely justifiable under prison conditions, but completely unacceptable under house arrest. "Furthermore, while in prison, Karapetyan was able to make public statements, whereas under house arrest this is prohibited," Feroyan added.