Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan's trial to start on Tuesday

A court in Armenia’s Armavir Province is set to start the trial of Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan on Tuesday, his lawyer Arsen Babayan reported.

In a social media post, Babayan noted that the presiding judge had recused himself during the previous hearing, resulting in the reassignment of the case. The newly appointed judge is Artur Adamyan. Dismissing the charges as politically motivated, the lawyer emphasized that the senior cleric had been held in pretrial detention for nearly three months,

The charges against Khachatryan date back to 2018. According to prosecutors, he allegedly instructed an unidentified individual to plant drugs in the backpack of a protester demanding the resignation of Catholicos Karekin II.