Mihran Makhsudian, a retired Armenian army colonel, and Davit Galstian, an exiled member of Nagorno-Karabakh’s parliament, were among 15 persons, including Galstanian, arrested on June 25 amid Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s controversial efforts to oust the top clergy of the Armenian Apostolic Church opposed to his concessions to Azerbaijan. They as well as three other individuals went on trial about two months later.
The Court of Appeals agreed to release Makhsudian and Galstian from prison during the latest session of the trial in a district court in Yerevan. Both men were moved to house arrest on bail. Fourteen other defendants remain in custody.
The suspects led by Galstanian stand accused of plotting “terrorist acts” in a bid to seize power. According to the Investigative Committee, they planned to paralyze Armenia’s security apparatus for that purpose.
Shortly after the arrests, Prosecutor-General Anna Vardapetian claimed that the outspoken archbishop and his supporters wanted to assassinate Pashinian and other senior officials. None of the suspects is facing corresponding murder charges, however.
The accusations levelled against them are essentially based on the audio of Galstanian’s wiretapped conversations with his associates which was partly publicized by investigators and circulated by Pashinian’s political allies later in June. Voices attributed to them could be heard discussing plans to set up dozens of small groups of men who would block streets, cut off electricity supply and Internet connection and cause other disruptions to help crowds topple the government.
Defense lawyers accused the authorities of doctoring the recordings and distorting their content after being given full access to them in early August. Hovannes Khudoyan, who represents Galstanian, published their lengthy transcripts shortly before the start of the high-profile trial on August 19.
During Thursday’s court hearing, Khudoyan again demanded that the court throw out the charges levelled against his client. He said the prosecution has not presented any compelling evidence in support of them.
Tension in the courtroom rose after a trial prosecutor again referred to the archbishop as “Mr. Galstanian,” pointedly avoiding a more courteous and widely accepted form of addressing high-ranking Armenian clerics.
“There is no Mr. Galstanian in this room, and you will have to answer for that insult as well,” raged the 54-year-old archbishop.
Another jailed defendant, opposition lawmaker Artur Sargsian, also condemned the prosecutor for not calling him “His Eminence Bagrat.”
Galstanian headed the Armenian Apostolic Church diocese in the northern Tavush province until leading in May and June 2024 anti-government protests sparked by Pashinian's controversial territorial concessions to Azerbaijan. After failing to scuttle the land transfer, he rallied tens of thousands of people in Yerevan to demand Pashinian’s resignation.
The day after Galstanian’s arrest, Pashinian threatened to forcibly remove Catholicos Garegin from his Echmiadzin headquarters if the supreme head of the Armenian Church continues to ignore his demands. Another archbishop critical of the prime minister, Mikael Ajapahian, was arrested and charged with calling for a violent regime change the following day. A Yerevan court sentenced Ajapahian to two years prison last week in a ruling strongly condemned by the church and the opposition.