Yerevan court rules to arrest Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan for two monthsc
YEREVAN, June 28. /ARKA/. A court in Yerevan has ruled in favor of a request to arrest Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan, head of the Shirak Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, for two months, his lawyer Ara Zohrabyan said. He described Judge Masis Melkonyan's decision as “blatantly illegal and unfounded.”
Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan surrendered to law enforcement authorities a few hours after security forces clashed with angry priests and other followers of the Armenian Apostolic Church on Friday trying to arrest him.
According to Zohrabyan, the court has restricted Archbishop's communication, allowing him to contact only close relatives and lawyers. He said that the defense will have 10 days to appeal the decision. The lawyer also noted that, according to preliminary information, Archbishop Ajapahyan will be moved to the Nubarashen penitentiary.
As lawyer Yarem Sargsyan said earlier the prosecutor's office and the Investigative Committee had already stated once that the call for a military coup the Archbishop made in a 2023 interview is not a crime.
“That is, they officially said he did the right thing. Now, on someone's order, they are saying that the same words (call for a military coup) is a crime,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan is facing criminal charges for publicly calling for the seizure of power and the violent overthrow of the constitutional order (Part 2, Article 422 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia). The Archbishop has denied the charges.
On June 26, the Investigative Committee of Armenia announced the arrest of 15 leaders and members of the Holy Struggle movement who are defendants in a criminal case involving the organization of terrorist attacks and the seizure of power in the country.
Among those arrested were the leader of the Holy Struggle movement, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, two other clergymen, former Artsakh parliamentarian David Galstyan, retired colonel Mihran Makhsudyan, and Dashnaktsutyun (ARF) member Igor Sargsyan.-0-
