A criminal case has been initiated against the Primate of the Shirak Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Archbishop Mikael Adjapayan, under Part 2 of Article 422 of the Armenian Criminal Code (public calls for the seizure of power, violation of territorial integrity, refusal of sovereignty, or violent overthrow of the constitutional order). This was written by the clergyman’s lawyer, Ara Zograbyan, on his Facebook page.

“Mikael Adjapayan did not plead guilty to the charges brought against him. The investigator has filed a motion for his arrest. The court must issue a decision on the arrest within 24 hours.

The charge is clearly unfounded and does not contain the elements of a crime as defined in Part 2 of Article 422 of the Criminal Code.

This entire process of attempted detention and interrogation has been accompanied by incorrect and misleading posts by Nikol Pashinyan, which influenced the preliminary investigation and judicial proceedings.

It is obvious that we are dealing with another illegal step in the authorities' anti-church process, which was manifested in the unprecedented actions of the NSS and police officers invading the territory of the Holy See,” Zograbyan noted.