Archbishop Ajapahyan’s lawyer calls charges ‘clearly illegal’

During a press conference, the lawyer representing Archbishop Mikayel Ajapahyan described the charges against the archbishop as “clearly illegal and unfounded,” and stated that they have nothing to do with the crime at all.

“It all started on June 4. The prosecutor’s office, on its own initiative, forwarded the publication to the police. The police allegedly prepared a report and passed it to the Investigative Committee (IC), and the IC opened a case. Now, if we look back, we see that it was on this very day that the prime minister started attacking Archbishop Mikayel on his social media page. This is a political prosecution because the prosecutor’s office reversed its stance entirely, solely because of the prime minister’s posts or perhaps on his instructions,” the lawyer said.