A Yerevan court has arrested Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan

The head of the Aragatsotn Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan, and priest Garegin Arsenyan have been arrested on charges of coercion to participate in meetings. 

As the " Caucasian Knot " reported , on October 15, Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan and six clergymen, as well as several civilians,  were detained in Armenia on suspicion of abuse of office to organize mass protests.

A general jurisdiction court in Yerevan has sentenced Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan, head of the Aragatsotn Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, to two months' pretrial detention on charges of coercion to participate in public gatherings. "The court granted the investigators' request and ordered two months' pretrial detention for the bishop," Armenia Today quotes his lawyer, Yerem Sargsyan, as saying.

"One of the articles under which the charge was brought was not a crime at the time the alleged act was committed. In other words, they're saying that in 2021, you coerced someone to participate in the elections and not vote for a specific person, but in 2021, that wasn't a crime. It only became a crime with the adoption of the 2022 Code," the lawyer believes. 

"As expected, the court granted the investigator's motion for a two-month detention. Visits with other individuals are restricted, with the exception of his closest relative, his mother. The court deemed the use of alternative preventive measures—bail and house arrest—inappropriate," Sarkisyan said. He claimed that only visits with his mother are permitted, which, in his view, constitutes a violation of his client's rights. His defense attorney called the decision unlawful and said he would appeal it.

In addition, Priest Garegin Arsenyan has been arrested for one month, lawyer Ara Zohrabyan told News.am. "Besides Bishop Mkrtich and Priest Garegin, no other clergy have been detained," Zohrabyan noted.

It should be noted that the defense of the detained priests stated that the case is related to a criminal investigation initiated based on statements by Aram Asatryan, a priest of the Aragatsotn Diocese. In an earlier interview with Public Television, he stated that the head of the diocese forced him and other priests to participate in opposition protests in 2021. It was later revealed that, based on his statements, a pro-government publication had appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office to initiate criminal proceedings. Daniel Ioannisyan, head of the Informed Citizen organization, stated that at their insistence, an investigation had been launched based on the statements by Aram Asatryan, as coercion to participate in meetings and rallies is prohibited by Armenian law.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan  harshly criticized the Church at a government meeting on May 29, and responded to Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan's objections with insults on Facebook*. Armenian politicians and church representatives demanded that Pashinyan apologize for his insults to the Church.

For more information on the case of Ajapayan and other political opponents of the current government, see the "Caucasian Knot" report " The Main Thing About Political Arrests in Armenia in the Summer of 2025. "

Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/416364