An appeal has been lodged against a court ruling that extended the pre-trial detention of Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan, according to his lawyer.
An appellate complaint has been filed against the decision to prolong the detention of Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan, Chancellor of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, his lawyer, Arsen Babayan, announced, according to Pastinfo.
On February 3, the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction, presided over by Judge Karen Farkhoyan, extended the archbishop’s detention by another two months.
Although the appeal against the judicial act has already been submitted, it has not yet been formally processed, and the court of first instance has not transferred the case materials to the Court of Appeal. It was also noted that no investigative or procedural actions involving Archbishop Arshak have been carried out during this period.
Archbishop Arshak was detained on December 4 by the National Security Service as he was leaving the Investigative Committee building. The Investigative Committee officially stated that public criminal prosecution had been initiated against him under Article 393(2)(1) and (4) of the Criminal Code (illegal sale of narcotics by a group of persons by prior agreement in a public venue).
However, as later clarified, the case does not concern the archbishop’s alleged sale of narcotics, as was initially suggested. Instead, he is accused of instructing that narcotics be planted in a bag to discredit one of the participants of the 2018 “New Armenia, New Patriarch” movement. The defense has described the accusation as absurd. On December 5, Judge Masis Melkonyan of the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction ordered Archbishop Arshak’s pre-trial detention.
