Yerevan court overturns conviction of Armenian Church hierarch
A bishop of the Armenian Church was released on his own recognizance.
The Court of Appeal of Armenia fully overturned the conviction of Armenian Church Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan on June 25, 2026, and released him from house arrest, reports Sputnik.
The Appellate Court judge, by his ruling, terminated the house arrest for Archbishop Mikael, replacing it with a travel ban. The criminal case was referred to the Court of General Jurisdiction of the Shirak region for a new hearing.
Archbishop Mikael himself greeted the news of his release with irony. "They shouldn't have overturned it — I was watching football," the hierarch joked to journalists, referring to World Cup broadcasts. Later, he added more seriously that he was disappointed by the absence of a full acquittal in his case.
As the UOJ reported, the Armenian authorities refused to allow Russian clergy of the Armenian Church to leave Armenia.
