Court orders criminal probe into wiretapping of clergyman - lawyer 

ArmInfo. The court has ordered Armenian law enforcement agencies to open a criminal case for illegally violating the confidentiality of Archbishop Nathan  Hovhannisyan's telephone conversations. Lawyer Ara Zohrabyan wrote  this on his Facebook page.

"As you may recall, on October 17, 2025, civic.am published an  article stating: 'A recording of a conversation between Archbishop  Nathan Hovhannisyan and former priest Agan Yernjakyan, which took  place in October 2023, has appeared online.' The same source also  published a recording of the telephone conversations. On the same  day, the Investigative Committee announced the opening of a criminal  case under Part 3 of Article 236 of the Criminal Code (use of  official powers or influence to hold rallies). On October 22, 2025, I  filed a complaint requesting the initiation of a criminal case under  Article 206 of the RA Criminal Code (illegal violation of the privacy  of telephone conversations). As expected, on October 29, 2025, the  Investigative Committee refused to initiate a criminal case, and on  November 18, 2025, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of  Armenia dismissed the complaint," the lawyer noted.

He added that law enforcement agencies showed no interest in the fact  that the aforementioned telephone conversation was recorded secretly  and, most likely, using special technical means designed for covert  information collection, as this was the only way to record telephone  conversations between three different people. It is also possible  that these conversations were subsequently edited and altered.

"After receiving the Prosecutor General's Office's refusal, I filed a  complaint with the Yerevan Criminal Court of First Instance (Judge A.  Meliksetyan). The court upheld the complaint, and the party to the  proceedings is obligated to initiate a criminal case. The court noted  that "...the elements of the crime provided for in Article 206 of the  Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia are obvious, therefore the  investigator is obliged to initiate a criminal case and verify the  facts stated in the statement," Ara Zohrabyan emphasized.