Armenian ruling party says Archbishop’s case handled by law enforcement, not authorities

A senior member of Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party said the faction has no clear explanation for why a seven-year-old criminal case involving Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan has been reopened. The cleric was previously arrested for two months in connection with the case.

Faction secretary Artur Hovhannisyan told journalists during a briefing in parliament that the matter was not being handled by political authorities but was under the jurisdiction of law enforcement bodies, Caliber.Az reports per Armenian media.

He added that he had no further comment, stating only that the investigation was being handled by the relevant investigative agencies.

Khachatryan’s arrest makes him the fourth high-ranking cleric of the Armenian Apostolic Church currently in custody. Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, Primate of the Diocese of Shirak, Mikael Ajapahian  and Primate of the Diocese of Aragatsotn, Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan, all remain in pre-trial detention. The media also recall that on October 25 an intimate video surfaced on a Telegram channel—later deleted—whose authors claimed it depicted Khachatryan with his uncle’s wife.

By Sabina Mammadli