Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II and the bishops who are members of the Supreme Spiritual Council of the Armenian Apostolic Church, involved in the case—except Bishop Vahan Hovhanessian, who is absent from Armenia—will personally attend the first session of the preliminary court hearing to be held Friday. Father Yesayi Artenyan, Director of the Information Department of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, stated this in an interview with NEWS.am.

In turn, lawyer Ara Zohrabyan wrote on his Facebook page that on Friday, at 16:00, the first session of the preliminary court hearing of the criminal case against Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II and six bishops, who are members of the Supreme Spiritual Council of the Armenian Apostolic Church, will take place in Vagharshapat city—better known as Ejmiatsin—at the court of first instance of general jurisdiction of Armavir Province.

The lawyer noted that the Catholicos of All Armenians and the aforesaid bishops in Armenia involved in the aforesaid case will attend the first court session.

“The state’s interference in the decisions of the Catholicos of All Armenians to recall a diocesan primate [of the Armenian Apostolic Church] and deprive him of the status of bishop is a violation of the fundamental principle of Church autonomy, the state-Church constitutional relations, and religious freedom, and a shameful historical event. The Armenian Patriarch is being prosecuted for fulfilling his ecclesiastical and canonical duty.

In this criminal case, the court will examine not only the accusations brought by individual persons, but also another important question: can secular authorities invade the internal life of the Church and criminalize the exercise of the canonical authority of the Catholicos of All Armenians?” the lawyer added.