YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am) — Armenia’s Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) agreed on Tuesday, November 3, to a government demand to discipline a judge who recused himself from the trial of an archbishop arrested late last year amid Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s attempts to depose Catholicos Garegin II.
Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan, who heads the Armenian Apostolic Church’s Chancellery in Echmiadzin, is prosecuted on a drug-related charge rejected by him as politically motivated. The Investigative Committee claims that he had one of his aides plant a marijuana joint in the backpack of a protester who demanded Garegin’s resignation in 2018.
Armenia’s Court of Appeals released Khachatryan from custody shortly before the start of his trial in March. A district court judge in the Armavir province, Gevorg Manukyan, agreed to recuse himself from the case during the opening session of the trial. Khachatryan’s lawyers argued that he used to work for the Investigative Committee’s Armavir division and may therefore not be impartial.
The Justice Ministry complained to the SJC about Manukyan’s decision, demanding disciplinary action against the judge. The judicial watchdog responded by formally reprimanding him. It did not immediately elaborate on its decision.
The ministry also initiated last month disciplinary proceedings against another Armavir court judge, Hakob Manukyan (no relation to Gevorg), who similarly refused to preside over a separate trial of Garegin and six other senior clergymen that began in August. Manukyan cited a conflict of interest, arguing that he had received a lawyer’s license from Ara Zohrabyan, Garegin’s chief lawyer who used to head the national bar association. The SJC is scheduled to meet and discuss disciplinary action against him on November 16.
