Criminal Proceedings to Be Initiated in the Case of the Transfer of Clergy from the Aragatsotn Diocese

As previously reported, a complaint was filed regarding the transfer of clergymen from the Aragatsotn diocese and obstruction faced by the lawyers who sought to provide them legal assistance, as well as the concealment of the fact of the arrest of the diocesan leader, Bishop Mkrtich. This was stated by lawyer Ara Zohrabyan.

"The investigator did not initiate criminal proceedings, and the prosecutor, rejecting my complaint, confirmed the investigator's position. The general jurisdiction court of Yerevan (Judge Tatevik Muradyan) accepted the complaint filed and decided to impose an obligation on the body conducting the proceedings to issue a procedural act aimed at rectifying the violation of the complainant's rights, that is, to initiate criminal proceedings based on Ara Zohrabyan's complaint.

The court expressed two important positions: According to Article 491 of the RA Criminal Code, 'Obstruction of the exercise of a lawyer's authority, if this is expressed by not unlawfully allowing the lawyer to enter any place of deprivation of liberty for the purpose of meeting with their client...' This norm has been interpreted narrowly by the investigative body and the prosecutor's office, considering only prison facilities or places within detention centers as a place of detention and asserting that the clergymen were in witness status.

However, the court deemed the fact of a person's actual deprivation of liberty to be significant, regardless of their status, stating: 'The court finds that the report of the crime contains a description of factual data indicating that the mentioned individuals were 'taken in' by the relevant subdivision of the RA Investigative Committee, meaning they were questioned not by their voluntary actions; therefore, in this case, the relevant subdivision of the RA Investigative Committee can be considered as a place of deprivation of liberty.'

The court notes that the reporting person pointed out that lawyers Armine Fanyan, Marine Farmanyan, and Shushanik Harutyunyan were not allowed to enter the relevant subdivision of the RA Investigative Committee and meet with their clients, and under these conditions, it is unclear how the investigative body reached the conclusion in a very short procedural period that the report and the attached documents did not contain any factual data, that the claims of the report's author were unsubstantiated, and that there was no need to initiate criminal proceedings in the context described.

According to Article 451 of the RA Criminal Code, 'The fact of forcible disappearance expressed by an official acting with the authority, support, consent, or tolerance of the state, of a person legally or illegally deprived of liberty is denied or concealed...' The court pointed out that 'the report of the crime contained factual data indicating that the investigating body failed to inform the lawyers of the location of the detainee, and this could only be clarified through the intervention of the Ombudsman’s office.'

The court records that the data regarding the lack of information about the status of a person's detention during a reasonable period and that obtaining this information was only possible due to the intervention of the Ombudsman’s office constitute a sufficient volume of factual data subject to verification, the accuracy of which could only be confirmed by initiating criminal proceedings and carrying out the necessary procedural and evidentiary actions.'

Regarding the issue, Ara Zohrabyan added two advisory points for our investigators, prosecutors, and judges: 1) Before thoughtlessly fulfilling orders from superiors, consider that everything is temporary and that time will come to answer before the law, and regarding issues related to the Church, believe that you will bear a heavy responsibility; 2) If you are uncertain about what to do (on the one hand, there is an order, and on the other, your own conscience), then be governed solely by the law," wrote Zohrabyan.