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Armenia’s Criminal Court of Appeals is set to deliver its ruling on the appeal against the arrest of Ara Saghatelyan, a former chief of staff of the National Assembly, on Friday, at 4pm, his attorney Hakob Yenokyan told reporters after a court hearing on Thursday.

The Criminal Court of Appeals, presided over by judge Arshak Vardanyan, heard the appeal of Saghatelyan’s lawyers against a lower court ruling to arrest their client earlier on Thursday.

Yenokyan said during the hearing Saghatelyan’s another attorney, Mihran Poghosyan, connected to the internet through the same Proton VPN and the IP address assigned to the four people involved in the case to show that the charges against them are “absurd”.

He stated the ruling of the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction to arrest Ara Saghatelyan for two months was baseless.

According to Yenokyan, Ara Saghtelyan was also in attendance of the court hearing and linked his arrest with his anti-Azerbaijani activities.

"That is, he has been isolated not to engage in anti-Azerbaijani activities," he said.

Saghatelyan has been charged with allegedly provoking racial, religious or ethnic hostility, making public calls for violence and justifying or propagating violence and violating the rules of publishing or spreading information during the martial law through a fake Facebook account opened in the name of a certain “Gagik Soghomonyan”.