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A Yerevan court ruling to arrest owner of the Fifth Channel Armen Tavadyan has been appealed to a higher court, his lawyer Hovhannes Khudoyan told reporters on Wednesday.

The Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction upheld the petition of the Special Investigation Service (SIS) to remand Tavadyan into custody for two months on 26 December.

SIS detained Tavadyan on 24 December on suspicion of seeking false testimony in favor of Armenia’s jailed former President Robert Kocharyan.

According to Khudoyan, it took one week to transfer the case to the Court of Appeals from the Kentron residence of the Court of General Jurisdiction.

"However, we expect that within the next few days (the law envisages a three-day period) when the case is assigned to a specific judge, a court hearing will be scheduled, the and appellate court will consider both the issue of detention and the lawfulness of the arrest," the lawyer said, adding a motion for bail may also be considered during the hearings.

Khudoyan said other judicial processes are currently underway, for example, whether the property of Armen Tavadyan has been seized, adding there are seizure-related motions that will be discussed with the body conducting the proceedings.

The lawyer says one of the defense motions to allow Tavadyan to be visited by his family members has been partially granted.

“This week we will have appropriate discussions with the body conducting the proceedings to figure out the prospects in this case. From the beginning, we have not seen any prospects in this case. I believe that one day the investigative body will understand that such conduct doesn’t suit the subjects conducting criminal proceedings in a rule of law country and that the restrictions on the rights of a person must be lifted immediately,” he stressed.

A number of media organizations and the journalists of the Fifth Channel have issued a statement in connection with Tavadyan's arrest, denouncing the criminal prosecution against him as an "act of political vendetta” against the businessman for his personal relationships.

The statement said that Tavadyan’s arrest was a "disgraceful example of physiological and financial pressure exerted on the Fifth Channel.”