YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — A 29-year-old judge has been assigned to preside over the trial of Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II just days after one of his colleagues recused himself from the unprecedented case denounced by Armenian opposition and Diaspora groups.
Karekin and six archbishops and bishops went on trial on Friday, August 7, amid Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s continuing efforts to depose the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The accusations leveled against them stem from the defrocking in January this year of another, pro-government bishop involved in Pashinyan’s controversial campaign. Their lawyers maintain that Armenian courts and law-enforcement bodies have no jurisdiction over internal church affairs. The Armenian constitution guarantees the ancient church’s independence and separation from the state.
The case was initially assigned to Hakob Manukyan, a judge of the court of first instance in the Armavir province. He recused himself from it moments after the start of the trial, citing a conflict of interest.
Court records posted on the Datalex.am national judicial database confirm Manukyan’s reported argument that he received his lawyer’s license from Karekin’s chief lawyer, Ara Zohrabyan, at a time when the latter headed Armenia’s national bar association. This fact “may raise doubts about my impartiality in this case,” he said.
Some critics of the Armenian government have suggested that Manukyan simply did not want to become the first Armenian judge to try a Catholicos. Even Soviet authorities had never prosecuted any of Karekin’s predecessors.
Datalex.am also shows that another Armavir judge, Serzh Rushanyan, has taken over the case. Rushanyan, who took the bench in 2023 at the age of 26, has yet to set a date for the next court hearing.
