On August 7, at 4:00 p.m., in the court of general jurisdiction of the first instance of Armavir region (Vagharshapat, Surb Grigor Lusavorcchi street 15, courtroom No. 1), H.E. The first session of the preliminary hearings of the criminal case against Karekin the Second Catholicos of All Armenians and six bishops who are members of the Supreme Spiritual Council, lawyer Ara Zohrabyan wrote.

Judge Hakob Manukyan will examine the case.

The lawyer claims that the Catholicos of All Armenians and the Holy Fathers in Armenia who are involved in the case will participate in the first court session.

“The intervention of the state in the decisions of the Catholicos of All Armenians regarding the recall of the diocesan leader and the deprivation of the bishop’s status is a violation of the fundamental principle of Church autonomy, state-Church constitutional relations and religious freedom and a shameful historical event.

The Armenian Patriarch is being prosecuted for fulfilling his ecclesiastical and canonical duty.

In this criminal case, the court will examine not only the accusations presented by individual persons, but another important question: can the secular power invade the internal life of the Church and criminalize the exercise of the canonical authority of the Catholicos of All Armenians,” Zohrabyan wrote.

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