Karekin II Declines To Testify In Criminal Case

Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II has refused to testify in a criminal case, exercising his right granted by law said lawyer Ara Zohrabyan.

“The Supreme Patriarch refused to testify that very day, as he had the right to do so, and he exercised that right,” he said, according to Panorama.am .

He noted that no investigative actions had been carried out, and argued that the criminal proceedings initiated against the Catholicos were intended to obstruct the convening of the Bishops’ Assembly and served that purpose.

Zohrabyan recalled that criminal proceedings had been launched against five bishops, and that when Karekin II had airline tickets and was preparing to depart for the Bishops’ Assembly, a case was opened against him one day before his trip.

According to the lawyer, the court had no authority to interfere in Church affairs, which, he said, would be comparable to a situation in which one spouse applies to a court and, by judicial act, the other spouse is compelled to love them.

“I have seen many things, but I have never encountered injustice of this scale and brazenness,” the lawyer declared.

On February 14, it became known that Armenia’s Prosecutor’s Office had initiated criminal prosecution against Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II on charges of failing to execute a judicial act in the case of the former head of the Masis Diocese, and had imposed a ban on his departure from Armenia.