Armenian court acquits chief accountant of Aragatsotn Diocese

ArmInfo. An Armenian court acquitted Naira Alaverdyan, chief accountant of the Aragatsotn Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC who had been facing  charges of embezzlement. Lawyer Marine Farmanyan shared this  information on her Facebook page.

"The criminal prosecution brought against Naira Alaverdyan, chief  accountant of the Aragatsotn Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Holy  Church, has been terminated due to her acquittal," Farmanyan  reported.

 The lawyer recalled that defrocked clerics Stepan Asatryan and  Aramais Tahmazyan had given false testimony during the preliminary  investigation, accusing Alaverdyan of misappropriating millions of  drams. Specifically, Aramais Tahmazyan claimed personally that the  sums owed to him by the diocese and the Holy See had not been paid  for approximately five years, and that this offense was carried out  through Alaverdyan.

However, according to the defense, investigators spent ten months  examining 1,262 bank transactions belonging to Aramais Tahmazyan and  his wife—who reportedly also provided false testimony. The resulting  decision to drop the prosecution confirmed that the diocese and the  Holy See had paid these individuals down to the last penny.

 "After the revelation, Aramayis Tahmazyan stated that he had memory  loss in the case, and due to a lack of concentration, he had trouble  remembering the moments when he received millions of drams from the  Holy See and the diocese. The investigative body noted that the  charges could not be based on Tahmazyan's memory loss," she added.

According to Farmanyan, because of this monstrous lie, Naira  Alaverdyan was illegally detained for several months, suffered health  problems, and suffered financial losses. " "Naira's mother, unable to  endure the unlawful prosecution of her daughter, passed away from  grief and exacerbated illness a few months ago, without living to see  her daughter exonerated. The time will come when all the culprits  will answer before God, and the law will triumph," the lawyer  concluded.