Jailed businessman Samvel Karapetyan, in a statement released today, announced that he has started to form a political team to lead a movement designed to oust Nikol Pashinyan as Armenia’s prime minister.

Karapetyan, now in pre-trial detention on charges that he made public calls for people "to seize power and to overthrow the country’s constitutional order", failed to provide specifics on how he envisages Pashinyan’s ouster.

Karapetyan, who owns the Tashir Group conglomerate, had earlier given an interview to news.am in which he denounced those politicians, including Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan, who have called for a new leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

“I have great respect for the political forces and figures who have waged a real struggle against the anti-national government policy of Nikol Pashinyan to this day. But we have our own vision of building a good future for Armenia,” the statement reads.