Lidya Mantashian, who actively participated in massive antigovernment protests led by Galstanian last year, is the only female defendant in the ongoing trial of 18 persons accused of plotting “terrorist acts” in a bid to seize power. Sixteen of them, including the outspoken cleric, remain under arrest.
“I absolutely don’t accept the accusations,” Mantashian said during the second court hearing in the trial that began on Tuesday. “I didn’t plan any terrorist acts. Neither did the other defendants present here.”
Mantashian’s lawyer, Tatev Soghoyan, petitioned the presiding judge, Karen Farkhoyan, not to extend her client’s two-month arrest that expires on August 25 and to free her on bail. Soghoyan also submitted a letter from five female opposition parliamentarians guaranteeing Mantashian’s proper behavior.
Farkhoyan rejected the request and allowed prosecutors instead to hold her in detention for three more months. One of them claimed that Mantashian could go into hiding or obstruct the trial. Soghoyan dismissed the claim, saying that it contradicts the prosecutors’ claim that they have collected sufficient evidence in support of the accusations.
The case is essentially based on the audio of Galstanian’s wiretapped conversations with his associates excerpts from which were publicized by investigators later in June. Defense lawyers accused the authorities of doctoring the recordings and distorting their content after being given full access to them earlier this month.
Galstanian and his supporters were 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. Pashinian threatened the next day to forcibly remove Catholicos Garegin from his Echmiadzin headquarters if the supreme head of the church continues to ignore his demands to resign.
Archbishop Mikael Ajapahian, another vocal critic of the premier, was arrested and charged with calling for a violent regime change on June 27. Ajapahian denies the accusation. His separate trial began on August 15.
Incidentally, it was Farkhoyan who sanctioned Ajapahian’s pre-trial arrest. Archbishop Galstanian’s lawyer, Hovannes Khudoyan, described as highly suspicious the fact that the same judge was chosen to preside over his client’s trial. He said he has demanded an official explanation from Armenia’s Judicial Department.