The Armavir Court of First Instance has rejected a motion filed by Ara Zohrabyan, representative of the Armenian Apostolic Church, requesting the recusal of Judge Edgar Hovhannisyan in the case of Bishop Gevorg Saroyan (Arman Saroyan), Factor.am reported.
The motion was submitted on March 6.
Zohrabyan argued that the judge could not examine the case impartially because he is also a member of the Supreme Judicial Council, and claimed that through his actions the judge was effectively fulfilling the wishes of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
The lawyer recalled that on January 10, commenting on the case, Pashinyan wrote: “I have already said that … Nersisyan is not the Catholicos of All Armenians, and therefore decisions taken from that position have no value for us. Bishop Gevorg Saroyan continues to remain the primate of the Masis diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church.”
Zohrabyan also noted that Saroyan was dismissed from the position of diocesan primate the same day.
According to the lawyer, the court accepted the claim in violation of the law and unlawfully granted Saroyan’s motion for interim measures securing the claim.
He also argued that the judge rejected a request to lift those interim measures and, being a member of the Supreme Judicial Council, contributed to the alleged targeting of the church’s representative.
In his ruling rejecting the recusal request, Judge Edgar Hovhannisyan addressed all four arguments raised by the lawyer.
“I state that the judicial acts were adopted independently. I refrained from expressing bias in my words or behavior and from creating such an impression for a reasonable and impartial observer. I have also not taken any actions that could reasonably create grounds for recusal.
Therefore, I believe that I have not violated any rule of judicial conduct, and the circumstances cited by the respondent’s representative — regarding the alleged fulfillment of the prime minister’s wishes or the existence of negative relations between him and the judge — are the result of his subjective perception and do not reasonably cast doubt on the judge’s impartiality,” the judge said.
In the case, former primate of the Masis diocese Bishop Gevorg Saroyan has filed a civil lawsuit against the church.
He demands that the patriarchal decree issued on January 10 by Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II, which removed him from the post of diocesan leader, be declared invalid and that he be reinstated to the position.
The claim was accepted for consideration on January 15 and assigned to Judge Edgar Hovhannisyan of the Armavir Court of First Instance.
The court applied interim measures and temporarily reinstated Saroyan as diocesan leader. However, on January 27, Catholicos Garegin II declared Saroyan defrocked.
Saroyan is among the ten bishops who had demanded the resignation of the Catholicos.
