Lawyer credits Armenian activist's release to public pressure

An Armenian court has ordered the release of opposition activist Lidya Mantashyan, ending her five-month detention in a criminal case involving Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian and 17 of his supporters. The court replaced her detention with a less restrictive measure on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Mantashyan’s lawyer, Tatevik Soghomonyan, said the decision was driven not by judicial fairness but by the intense public pressure surrounding the case.

“I am sure the outcome would have been different without the major public response,” Soghomonyan said. “This is a victory for public pressure, not for justice.”

She criticized the case from the outset, calling the evidence “absurd” and asserting that the proceedings lacked any grounding in proper legal standards.

The charges against Mantashyan have been widely dismissed by experts, human rights advocates and opposition figures as politically motivated. Notably, prosecutors did not object to her release during the hearing.