A Russian court has extended the prison term for Aram Petrosyan, an Armenian businessman charged with hostage-taking.
According to the verdict, he will remain in prison until April 24, APA reported citing RIA Novosti.
By then, necessary actions have to be taken as to the results of his psychological examination and the search operations, and then a final act of indictment will be pronounced.
Petrosyan, who is charged with hostage-taking and terrorism, has appealed to the court for the verdict to be replaced with house arrest.
Bankrupt Armenian businessman Aram Petrosyan took four people hostage in a Citibank branch in downtown Moscow in August 2016, and threatened to blow up the building
Later, however, he released the hostages and surrendered to Russian authorities. No explosives were found on him.
Petrosyan said he did so in order to draw attention to the problems faced by bankrupt entrepreneurs.