Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan, the chancellor of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, has been released from custody. The information was announced on Facebook by his lawyer, Arsen Babayan.

“Archbishop Arshak was immediately released from custody by a decision of Appeals Court Judge A. Nikoghosyan,” he wrote.

Archbishop Khachatryan had been detained on December 4 by the National Security Service as he was leaving the Investigative Committee building.

The Investigative Committee had officially reported that public criminal prosecution had been initiated against him under Article 393, Part 2, Clauses 1 and 4 of the Criminal Code (illegal sale of narcotics by a group of persons by prior agreement in a public place).

However, it later emerged that the case did not concern the archbishop selling drugs, as initially presented. Instead, he was accused of instructing someone to place narcotics in a bag in order to discredit a participant in the 2018 “New Armenia, New Patriarch” movement. The defense described the accusation as absurd.

On December 5, Judge Masis Melkonyan of the Yerevan Court of First Instance for criminal cases ordered Archbishop Khachatryan placed in pretrial detention.