Catholicos Karekin II appears in court on Aug. 7 (Video screen grab)

A new judge has been assigned to preside over the criminal case against Catholicos Karekin II and six other bishops, after another judge recused himself from the case during the first scheduled hearing on August 7.

According to DataLex, an online legal directory in Armenia, Serzh Rushanyan from the Armavir Province has been assigned as the new justice overseeing the case. The 29-year-old Rushanyan has not yet set a new hearing date.

Rushanyan was appointed a judge in 2023, before that he worked at the Justice Ministry, and, from 2017 to 2020, he was the president of the “Justice and Rule of Law” civic organization.

Catholicos Karekin II and five of the six bishops indicted in the case appeared in court on August 7. The presiding judge, Hakop Manukyan, recused himself from the case, citing a conflict of interest. The court adjourned minutes after the session convened.

Datalex also published a statement explaining Judge Manukyan’s decision to recuse himself.

Manukyan explained that in 2021 he studied at National Law Academy and, during that time, the attorney representing the Catholicos in this case, Ara Zohrabyan, was the President of the Chamber of Advocates and the Chairman of the Qualification Commission of the Chamber of Advocates. Manukyan added that Zohrabyan, himself, issued his attorney’s license following an oral examination.

“The stated factual circumstances in their entirety may raise reasonable doubts among an impartial and unbiased observer about my impartiality in this case, and accordingly, both the objectivity of the examination of the case and the fairness of the judicial acts to be made may be questioned. Therefore, in the interests of justice, I found it necessary to recuse myself from this case,” Manukyan wrote on DataLex.

The Catholicos and six high ranking Etchmiadzin bishops are accused of obstructing the execution of a judicial ruling, which involves a court decision compelling the church to reappoint a dismissed cleric.

The case is centered around Archbishop Gevorg Saroyan, one of 10 bishops who joined Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s campaign against the Catholicos and the Armenian Church.

Last year, the Catholicos dismissed him, and the court ordered the pontiff to reinstate the archbishop. The Mother See, however, did not reinstate him and defrocked him, declaring that these matters were not within the jurisdiction of the court, saying the court ruling interfered in the autonomy of the church. The Investigative Committee considered this obstruction of a justice and prosecutors indicted the Catholicos and six others.

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