The final speeches were made at today’s court session in the case of Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan, leader of Shirak Diocese, in the Appellate Criminal Court.
It should be noted that Bishop Michael has been under house arrest since February 6. He is only allowed to participate in Sunday liturgies, to receive communion, but he is not allowed to celebrate mass.

“A military coup must be carried out, otherwise Armenia will become Armenia. “Ajapahyan” article and the video that is its source. It turned out that all this does not contain public appeals aimed at seizing power using communication technologies. No proceedings were initiated in connection with the program. According to the law, it was recorded that the circumstances described in the report do not document such an event, action or inaction, which can reasonably be given a preliminary legal assessment corresponding to any action provided for by the criminal code”, lawyer Roman Aharonyan said about this during the court session.

Lawyer Ara Zohrabyan also raised a rhetorical question: is what Reverend Mikael said a threat and a call? He insisted that the reverend told an episode from the past, there was no call regarding the future and that is obvious. According to Zohrabyan, he presented his thoughts about what happened in the war and in case of a call, there should have been direct action, which obviously did not happen.

Saint Mikael also made a final speech, noting that today is already the 356th day of his illegal detention, and in 10 days it will be 1 year.

“I thank God for giving me these wonderful days, except for the torture of my intellect by our beloved prosecutors in the Court of First Instance. I thank you for the thought, calmness, fraternal conversations with Reverends Bagrat and Arshak, and the wonderful opportunity to stand out in the last 4 months (no contact with anyone except 4 people – ed.). I happily focused on my spiritual, mental, and physical well-being. We spent really wonderful days, they were the best days of my life, you have nothing to think about, because your flock is cut off from you, you have no right to deal with your flock”, said the reverend.

He emphasized that in about 1 year he only thought about praying and spiritual peace. The leader of the Shirak Diocese thanked God for that opportunity, at the same time he emphasized that this does not mean that he should be grateful to those people who created it all for their own purposes. He insisted that those persons, if not to the law, will surely answer before God.

“I do not plead guilty, I am in prison completely illegally, I have not committed any sin, I reject all accusations. I am innocent before the Republic of Armenia and I have been innocent before the Republic of Armenia. I dedicated my whole life to the Republic of Armenia, it is insulting to me that I am being tried “for the sake of the Republic of Armenia”, said the cleric.

Reverend Mikael also called the chief prosecutor, the chairman of the investigative committee, the human rights defender and the minister of justice liars. He wondered if those persons would be held accountable for being a liar and for his illegal detention or not.

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