No direct evidence against Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan - lawyer 

ArmInfo. I'm about to receive a decision on a two-month arrest; I'm sure it already exists. There's no other option. This was stated by Arsen Babayan, the lawyer for  Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan, head of the chancery of the Mother See  of Etchmiadzin, in a conversation with journalists in the courthouse  courtyard on December 5. It should be noted that the Investigative  Committee's motion for Khachatryan's arrest is currently being  reviewed by Judge Masis Melkonyan, who previously arrested  Archbishops Mikael Ajapakhian and Bagrat Galstanian.

There is no direct testimony against Archbishop Arshak. Various  individuals, as we'll discuss later, have suggested that he may have  planted the drugs in the activist's backpack. The last action in the  case, which has been under investigation since 2018, took place in  July 2025. On December 4, 2025, an investigative team was created and  the archbishop was arrested.

They've been investigating for seven years, but they still haven't  figured out how the drugs ended up in the backpack.

This case has nothing to do with jurisprudence," Babayan stated.

When asked if the head of the chancery of the Mother See is prepared  for the fact that he will soon find himself alongside other  archbishops, the lawyer stated: "I've been prepared for this since  the press conference."

As a reminder, the previous evening, Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan  was detained by National Security Service officers at the entrance to  the Investigative Committee building. He was summoned for questioning  in connection with the well-known video recording case and, after the  questioning, was detained, with the statement that there was an  investigator's order to detain the archbishop. At that time, the  National Security Service did not specify the charges against him. It  later emerged that the archbishop was accused of planting drugs in  the bag of a participant in a protest against His Holiness in 2018,  allegedly for the purpose of discrediting him. The Investigative  Committee of Armenia later reported that the criminal case was opened  under Article 393, Part 2, Clauses 1 and 4 of the Russian Criminal  Code (illegal sale of narcotics committed by a group of persons by  prior agreement in a public place).

Currently, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan,  Primate of the Shirak Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and  Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan, Primate of the Aragatsotn Diocese, are in  pretrial detention.