Overview
- Judge Masis Melkonyan in Yerevan ordered Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan held for two months, his lawyer said, adding the defense will appeal.
- The Investigative Committee launched a public prosecution under provisions on illegal sale of narcotics by a group by prior agreement at a mass event.
- Investigators link the case to 2018 demonstrations against Catholicos Garegin II, with claims he directed aides to plant marijuana in a protester’s backpack, according to the defense’s account of the accusation.
- Khachatryan was detained by Armenia’s National Security Service at the Investigative Committee building after questioning related to a widely shared compromising video.
- The lawyer called the charge absurd and politically motivated, as debate continues over a bishops’ letter citing a disputed forensic claim about the video’s authenticity.