Today, the preliminary hearings in the case of Archbishop Bagrat and 17 supporters of the “Sacred Struggle” movement continue at the Shengavit Residence of the Yerevan City Court of First Instance, presided over by Judge Karen Farkhoyan. At the very beginning of the hearing, lawyer Hovhannes Khudoyan challenged all state prosecutors (five prosecutors) involved in the trial. The basis for the challenge was a well-known audio recording of a speech by the leader of the “Sacred Struggle” movement, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, activists of the movement, and several other individuals. The lawyer emphasizes that the criminal case materials are falsified.
“A certain part of the dialogue was removed from the transcript in order to present the conversation in a different context,” Khudoyan noted.
According to him, the data, taken out of context, was subsequently used in official statements by the RA Criminal Investigation Department, in an interview with the Chairman of the Criminal Investigation Department and the Prosecutor General on Public Television, and in the Prosecutor General’s motion to lift the immunity and remand Artur Sargsyan, a member of the NA “Armenia” faction.
Khudoyan was familiar with the actual content of the conversation, but after listening to it, the investigator recorded that “everything was heard and recorded correctly,” while the content differed.
“What does all this have to do with prosecutors? At least during the preliminary hearings of this criminal case, it was stated in the courtroom that the aforementioned falsified evidence was present in the criminal proceedings and attached to the indictment,” Khudoyan said.
He added that even after receiving the information at this stage, the prosecutors had taken no action to clarify the circumstances of the falsifications or respond within their authority.
In turn, Archbishop Bagrat stated that he had declared on the very first day that the accusers were not accusers, but slanderers. The archbishop asked the prosecutors three questions, demanding they respond and substantiate their answers.
“What does the phrase ‘shoot two people, imprison 15’ mean? Secondly, is there any mention of the bus burning or not? Thirdly, is there a Russian connection or not?” the archbishop asked, citing the statements and speculations regularly used by the authorities. He also expressed hope that the prosecutors themselves would recuse themselves and “by this step, spare themselves and their descendants all future hardships.”
He also congratulated the prosecutors who had recently received awards, noting that they owed this to themselves and Archbishop Mikhail.