Samvel Karapetyan has been released from a detention center in Yerevan.

Entrepreneur Samvel Karapetyan was released from jail after a court upheld his house arrest. Karapetyan's supporters gathered in Yerevan greeted him with applause.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot," on January 16, Samvel Karapetyan was transferred from the hospital, where he was receiving inpatient treatment, to a penal facility by order of an investigator. That same day, the Anti-Corruption Court of Appeals in Yerevan suspended the decision to transfer Karapetyan to house arrest. A second hearing began later, lasting 14 hours and concluding on January 17. At this hearing, the court refused to increase Samvel Karapetyan's sentence and remained him under house arrest.

Today, Samvel Karapetyan returned home after being released from the National Security Service detention center. Karapetyan's supporters, who had gathered near his home, greeted the businessman with applause, News.am reports.

Video footage published by the outlet shows a crowd of people surrounding the police van carrying Karapetyan. Even before the van stopped, the crowd began chanting "Samvel!" When a security officer began opening the door to the detainee's compartment, the crowd began applauding. Their applause and cheers noticeably intensified when Samvel Karapetyan emerged from the van.

Before his arrest, Samvel Karapetyan expressed support for the Armenian Apostolic Church after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan harshly criticized the Church at a government meeting on May 29 and responded to Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan's objections with insults on Facebook*. Armenian politicians and church representatives demanded that Pashinyan apologize for insulting the church, according to a report prepared by the "Caucasian Knot" entitled "Main Points of Political Arrests in Armenia in June 2025."

In July 2025, 65 members of the Armenian parliament supported a bill allowing the nationalization of Karapetyan's company, Electric Networks of Armenia. On July 8, security forces searched the company's offices and the home of board chairman Narek Karapetyan.

On July 2, 2025, searches were conducted at the Yerevan office of Tashir Group. The searches were prompted by a criminal case on tax evasion and money laundering. On July 11, 2025, Vaghinak Kazaryan, director of Karapetyan's Tashir Pizza company, was arrested in connection with tax evasion.