Samvel Karapetyan is in pre-trial detention after being arrested last June on charges of inciting a coup and money laundering

Three people have been detained outside a court in the Armenian capital Yerevan as protesters called for the release of jailed billionaire and government critic Samvel Karapetyan, Sputnik Armenia has reported.

Scuffles broke out between the demonstrators and law enforcement officers as the court deliberated whether to prolong the tycoon's pre-trial detention, as seen in a video published by the outlet on Friday.

The businessman, who also holds Russian citizenship, was arrested last June on charges of inciting a coup and money laundering. Karapetyan, who had publicly condemned Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's crackdown on the clergy of the Armenian Apostolic Church, dismissed the process as politically motivated.

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Tensions between the prime minister and the national church date back to 2020 when its top cleric, Catholicos Garegin II, called on Pashinyan to step down after Armenia ceded land to neighboring Azerbaijan. The decision caused mass protests at the time, with demonstrators accusing Pashinyan of betraying Armenia's interests.

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The prime minister responded by arguing that Garegin was unfit for his position. Several senior clerics have since been arrested by the authorities on charges of abuse of power and fraud.

Last October, Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan was sentenced to two years in prison for inciting a coup - a case he described as politically motivated.

That same month, Vardan Ghukasyan, the mayor of Gyumri and a vocal critic of Pashinyan's pro-Western foreign policy shift, was placed in pre-trial detention on bribery charges.

Critics have accused the prime minister of using law enforcement to suppress dissent and consolidate power amid declining popularity.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that while political turmoil in Armenia is an "internal matter," Moscow is closely following the developments there.

(RT.com)