Levon Hayrapetyan’s lawyer intends to appeal against his arrest

The defense lawyer of prominent businessman Levon Hayrapetyan who was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement and money laundering intends to appeal against the measure of restraint chosen for him, lawyer Ruben Markaryan told RIA Novosti.

Judge of Moscow’s Basmanny court Natalia Mushnikova on Thursday sent Hayrapetyan into an investigative isolation ward. She accepted the investigator’s arguments that the businessman has the opportunity to hide from law enforcers, put pressure on witnesses, and destroy evidence.

“In our appeal, we will indicate a number of points, particularly the fact that Hayrapetyan was engaged in entrepreneurial activity so he was not subject to arrest,” the lawyer said.

Under President Dmitry Medvedev, amendments prohibiting detention of persons who committed economic crimes during their entrepreneurial activities were made to the Criminal Procedure Code. Media reported that this ban has been repeatedly violated since then.

In the opinion of Markaryan, the court also ignored the fact that Hayrapetyan suffers from several diseases which are on the list of diseases that bans a person’s imprisonment in an isolation ward.

Investigators suspect L. Hayrapetyan, a Moscow-based wealthy businessman of Armenian descent, of being connected with the sale of Bashneft by Ural Rakhimov to Sistema Company in April 2009. The court earlier ordered to seize Bashneft’s holding of shares worth 300 million rubles as part of the case.