Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan, the chancellor of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, was released from custody on March 5, 2026, following a decision by Appeals Court Judge A. Nikoghosyan. He had been detained on December 4 by the National Security Service and initially faced charges under Article 393, Part 2, Clauses 1 and 4 of the Criminal Code related to the illegal sale of narcotics. However, the case evolved to accuse him of instructing someone to place narcotics in a bag to discredit a participant in the 2018 “New Armenia, New Patriarch” movement, an accusation his defense deemed absurd. He had been placed in pretrial detention on December 5 by Judge Masis Melkonyan.