Russian–Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan has won an urgent arbitration case against the Armenian government regarding the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA), Karapetyan’s defence council announced on Wednesday.
Karapetyan’s lawyers also noted that the decision of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC Arbitration Institute) is subject to ‘mandatory execution’ by the Armenian authorities.
‘The arbitration concluded that it was necessary to apply urgent measures of protection, since the actions of the Republic of Armenia “raise serious doubts about the compliance of the Republic of Armenia with the Agreement on the Reciprocal Protection of Investments in force between Armenia and Cyprus” ’, the statement read.
It also ‘obliged’ Armenian authorities ‘to refrain from applying the provisions of the recently adopted’ legislative amendments that would allow the state to take over the ENA as well as ‘from further steps to seize’ the company, Karapetyan’s lawyers stated.
The Armenian Parliament adopted a bill that would virtually allow the state to take over the company on 3 July by enabling the state to ‘intervene’ and oversee its administrations should the company fail to meet its obligations.
Yousef Bardouka
According to the Armenian Public TV, SCC Arbitration Institute ‘has rejected the claim for the release’ of Karapetyan.
Earlier, on 30 June, Karaptyan’s Tashir Group announced that the tycoon’s family officially notified Armenian authorities about initiating an investment dispute.
The notice, according to their statement, was based on the 1995 Armenia–Cyprus investment promotion and protection agreement, which allows investors to turn to international arbitration if their rights are violated by the state.
The announcement seeking to nationalise the ENA came shortly after Karapetyan’s detention in June, with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan vowing to ‘swiftly’ act to do so.
Meanwhile, he claimed the move was not related to Karapetyan’s remarks in support of the church, which led to his detention in June and charges of making calls to overthrow the government.
Instead, Pashinyan cited public discontent with the company’s services and frequent power outages in Armenia, which Pashinyan alleged were intentionally used ‘to generate internal public discontent in Armenia’.
‘If the politicians fail, then we will participate in our own way in all of this’, Karapetyan had said in an interview with News.am before his arrest.
Following his arrest, Armenia fined ENA ֏10 million ($26,000) ‘for technical and commercial violations’, the Public Services Regulatory Commission announced.
In mid-July, Karapetyan was charged with additional money laundering charges through several companies, following raids on his companies in Armenia.
Yousef Bardouka
‘Eliminating possible risks threatening state security’
The Armenian government responded shortly after the statement from Karapetyan’s lawyers.
‘While respecting the security measures applied by foreign arbitration decisions, at the same time everyone is also obliged to be guided by the legislation of […] Armenia and international treaties that define the rules and procedures for the recognition and implementation of arbitration decisions’, the Armenian government said in its response.
The statement said it was released in response to unnamed media publications, with the Armenian government stating the scope of the issues examined in the urgent case ‘is different from the objectives of the decision to appoint a temporary administrator and the scope of the actions to be taken by the latter’.
The goal of the appointment of a temporary administrator, according to the statement, pursued ‘preventing the risks of deliberately creating an energy crisis’, ‘ensuring public order, eliminating possible risks threatening state security’, ‘excluding the concealment of abuses in the ENA and preventing further abuses’.
On 18 July, the Chair of the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC), Mesrop Mesropyan, appointed Romanos Petrosyan as the temporary manager of the ENA, in an apparent overture to the state’s takeover of the company.
Petrosyan is a prominent member of the ruling Civil Contract party’s board.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
