The next hearing in the case involving the Catholicos of All Armenians and six bishops is scheduled for Oct. 30 at 4 p.m., when Judge Serzh Rushanyan will also announce his decision on the motions filed.
At the Sept. 18 hearing, the defense requested that the criminal prosecution of the Catholicos of All Armenians and the other senior clergy be terminated and the proceedings dismissed. The defense also proposed that, if a procedural obstacle exists, the court refer the matter to the Constitutional Court, Sputnik Armenia reported.
“The state has no right to decide who should be a bishop,” defense lawyer Ara Zohrabyan told the court.
The lawyer stressed that defrocking a bishop is an act of an exclusively spiritual, canonical and religious nature and therefore, he argued, the conduct attributed to the Catholicos does not constitute a crime.
On Feb. 14, it became known that criminal prosecution had been initiated against the Catholicos of All Armenians on charges of obstructing the enforcement of a court ruling concerning defrocked Arman Saroyan, former head of the Masis Diocese. The Catholicos was also prohibited from leaving Armenia.
On Aug. 7, during the first court hearing, Judge Hakob Manukyan of the Armavir Regional Court of First Instance of General Jurisdiction recused himself, after which the case was assigned to Judge Serzh Rushanyan of the same court.
On Aug. 28, Rushanyan ruled that the case involving the Catholicos of All Armenians and six bishops should be transferred to the Yerevan Court of First Instance of General Jurisdiction. On Sept. 3, Judge Vahagn Melikyan of the Yerevan criminal court of general jurisdiction applied to the Court of Cassation to resolve the issue of jurisdiction.
On Sept. 7, it became known that Armenia’s Court of Cassation had sent the case involving Karekin II and six bishops back to the Armavir Regional Court of First Instance of General Jurisdiction.