The defense of Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan, the diplomat of the Mother See, presented a petition to the court at the first court session in his case regarding the immediate termination of the criminal prosecution.

“The whole accusation is built on the whims of some people. A situation is created when there is no physical evidence of the crime, there is no victim, the perpetrator, but there is the person who ordered it, I am represented as the person who ordered it,” said Reverend Arshak in his address to the court.

He added that he is not engaged in political activities, but now he is being politically prosecuted, and he expects the criminal prosecution to be stopped.

“It is obvious that everything here is fake and fabricated. “If the courts were at their height until this moment, if the investigators and the prosecutor’s office were impartial, if they were not delegated, we would not be in this situation, therefore I have no other expectations and demands,” said the reverend.

According to his defense attorney Arsen Babayan, according to the accusation, Saint Arshak, with the aim of discrediting some group, ordered an unknown person to perform some action, which was qualified as a crime against the health of the population, as provided by the Criminal Code, for trafficking narcotics for sale.

“In this regard, we believe that at least there is no object of crime, so we request to stop the criminal prosecution right now,” said defense attorney Arsen Babayan.

The prosecuting prosecutor, however, petitioned to re-apply Arshak to arrest.

“The case is still at the stage of preliminary investigations, not all persons of essential importance for the case have been questioned. Moreover, there are data that the alleged crime was committed with the involvement of several people, which significantly increases the risk of interfering with the process of coordinating testimony and proof,” said prosecutor Alisa Boyajyan.

According to his claim, the freedom of Saint Arshak can not only create a risk of influencing the witnesses, distorting their testimonies, but he can take steps to destroy or falsify possible evidence.

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