Arshak Archbishop's Case: Arbitrary Conclusions Cannot Have Any Evidentiary Value, Says Investigative Committee

The case concerning the violation of Arshak Archbishop Khachatryan's personal life is under investigation by the Armenian Investigative Committee, which has commissioned and received a forensic psychological and forensic autopsy conclusion. According to this conclusion, it has been confirmed that the archbishop is depicted in the videos.

Regarding the three various expert conclusions under debate, the Investigative Committee stated that they cannot be regarded as evidence, as they were obtained outside the framework of the criminal case and were not authorized by the body conducting the investigation, according to the rules set forth in the criminal procedure legislation.

“Moreover, such arbitrarily obtained conclusions cannot have any evidentiary force, as an expert conclusion gains legal value in a criminal case only when it is based on a comprehensive study of the materials of the case and is carried out with the preservation of the appropriate procedural guarantees. Therefore, any assessment obtained outside the investigation, without a proper procedural basis, and without a complete examination of the materials, cannot be treated either as evidence or as a lawful expert opinion and cannot serve as the basis for any legal conclusion,” the Investigative Committee stated.