Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian was arrested along with his 15 supporters in June 2025 on charges of plotting “terrorist acts” in a bid to seize power. They as well as two other individuals went on trial in August, denying the accusations.
Shortly after the arrests, Prosecutor-General Anna Vardapetian claimed that Galstanian and his supporters wanted to assassinate Pashinian and other senior officials. None of the suspects faced corresponding murder charges, however. That did not stop Pashinian and his political allies from branding the suspects as terrorists.
In a report sent to the Armenian government on May 11 and publicized by one of Galstanian’s lawyers on Monday, experts from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed concern at the violation of their presumption of innocence and said their arrests may not have been justified. The experts also cats doubt on the coup charges, arguing that international law defines terrorism as actions designed to kill or seriously injure people.
“We are concerned that the measures taken appear not to be consisted with Armenia’s international human rights law obligations,” they said.
The accusations are essentially based on excerpts from the audio of Galstanian’s wiretapped conversations with his associates which were publicized by investigators following the arrests. Defense lawyers gained full access to the recordings during the subsequent investigation. They accused the authorities of doctoring, distorting or taking the audio out of context to substantiate the “trumped-up” charges and mislead the public.
The government replied to the OHCHR experts last week, defending the arrests and denying any political motives behind the high-profile case.
Armenia’s Court of Appeals moved Archbishop Galstanian to house arrest on June 4. The other defendants were set free or placed under house arrest months ago. One of Galstanian’s lawyers, Tatevik Soghoyan, linked the court order to the OHCRHR criticism which she said took Pashinian’s administration off guard.
One day after Galstanian’s arrest, Pashinian threatened to forcibly remove Garegin from his Echmiadzin headquarters if the supreme head of the Armenian Church continues to ignore his demands to resign. Archbishop Mikael Ajapahian, another vocal critic of the prime minister, was arrested and charged the next day with calling for a violent regime change.
As Pashinian stepped up the pressure on the Catholicos, two other high-ranking clergymen were arrested later in 2025 on different charges also denied by them. They and Ajapahian were moved to house arrest early this year. Ajapahian was set free altogether late last month after the Court of Appeals overturned a two-year prison sentence given to him by a lower court.
