By the decision of the court of appeal, Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan, Chancellor of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, has been immediately released from pretrial detention. Lawyer Arsen Babayan informed about this on Facebook.

Archbishop Khachatryan was arrested on December 4, 2025 by the National Security Service of Armenia as he was leaving the building of the Investigative Committee of Armenia.

The Investigative Committee officially announced that a public criminal prosecution was initiated against him on charges of illegal sale of drugs by a group of persons with prior consent in a public place.

In actual fact, however, the archbishop is accused of  instructing to put drugs in the bag of an activist of the "New Armenia, New Patriarch" movement in 2018 in order to discredit this person, which, according to the defense, is absurd.

Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan was arrested on December 5, 2025, by the decision of the Yerevan Criminal Court of General Jurisdiction.