An Armenian court has postponed the trial of the Armenian Church’s Patriarch Karekin II and five bishops after the prosecutors failed to appear before the court on Nov. 9.
Catholicos Karekin II, the Armenian Apostolic Church’s primate, is on trial along with five other Armenian bishops for obstruction of justice, after he refused to reinstate a laicized and excommunicated bishop despite a court order to do so amid a dispute with the government.
Patriarch Karekin II. Credit: Armenian Apostolic Church official photo.
The trial is the high point of a years-long conflict between the Armenian Apostolic Church and the country’s government, headed by Nikol Pashinyan, who was elected as prime minister in 2018.
Five other Armenian bishops are standing trial alongside Karekin II — Archbishop Nathan Hovhannisyan, Archbishop Haykazun Najaryan, Bishop Vahan Hovhannesyan, Bishop Edgar Hakobyan, and Bishop Artur Hakobyan.
If found guilty, the bishops could face two years in prison.
The bishops’ defense attorney Ara Zohrabyan accused the prosecution on Nov. 9 of deliberately delaying the proceedings as one of the prosecutors was on a business trip and another was in a different court hearing and did not arrange for a replacement.