Is There a Topic of Burning a Bus? Bishop Bagrat Delivers a Speech

Preliminary hearings continue today in the case involving Bishop Bagrat and 17 supporters of the "Sacred Struggle" movement at the Shengavit branch of the first-instance general jurisdiction court of Yerevan, presided over by Judge Karen Farhoyan.

At the very beginning of the session, defense attorney Hovhannes Khudoyan filed a motion to disqualify all the public prosecutors involved (5 prosecutors). The basis for the disqualification is a well-known recording in which the leader of the Sacred Struggle movement, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, activists of the movement, and several other individuals are speaking. The defense emphasized that there are forgeries in the materials of the criminal proceedings.

"A part of the dialogue has been removed from the protocol in order to present the content of the discussion in a different context," Khudoyan stated. According to him, the content taken out of context has later been used in official statements from the NSS of Armenia, in interviews with the head of the NSS and the Prosecutor General on Public Television, as well as in the Prosecutor General's motion concerning the removal of immunity and imprisonment of member of parliament Arthur Sargsyan from the "Armenia" faction.

Khudoyan read the actual content of the conversation, which, however, the investigator noted after listening that "everything was heard and accurately recorded," while different contents exist.

"What connection does all this have with the public prosecutors? At least during the preliminary hearings of this criminal case (the issue has been discussed several times in the public domain), it was announced in the courtroom that forged evidence exists and has been included in the accusatory conclusion of the criminal proceedings," Khudoyan noted.

For his part, Bishop Bagrat stated, "The prosecutors are not prosecutors; they are defamers." He added, "What does the expression 'to shoot 2 people, to imprison 15 people' refer to, and is there a topic of burning a bus or not? Thirdly, is there a Russian trace or not?" citing the statements and manipulations that the authorities use periodically.