Criminal investigation launched over alleged sex tape involving Armenian priest
Armenia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case following the circulation of sex tapes allegedly featuring Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan, Chancellor of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.
The move comes amidst an escalating standoff between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government and the Armenian Apostolic Church, with critics claiming that the tape was recorded and leaked by the ruling party.
The proceedings were launched under Article 204(3)(2) of the Criminal Code – ‘violation of personal or family life by using special technical means for gathering information’. The case was initiated after the Union of Informed Citizens, a Yerevan-based civil society organisation, filed a complaint on 25 October reporting that a newly created Telegram channel had published explicit footage allegedly featuring Khachatryan. Four days later, the Prosecutor General’s Office referred the report to the Investigative Committee to decide whether to pursue full criminal proceedings.
The committee subsequently confirmed that an investigator has been assigned to review the complaint and that a formal decision would be taken within 24 hours. Officials have not yet disclosed whether Khachatryan himself has been questioned or whether the source of the recording has been identified.
Opposition politicians and rights groups have called the leak an egregious breach of privacy and a dangerous precedent. They argue that such intrusions into private life not only violate individual rights but also reflect growing tendencies of state surveillance and politically motivated smear campaigns.
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The government has publicly condemned the spread of the footage, though officials stopped short of addressing suspicions that security agencies might have been aware of the recordings. Arayik Harutyunyan, the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, said he had not viewed the materials but believed the National Security Service (NSS) was ‘taking appropriate steps to identify how this happened’. He also urged Khachatryan to personally appeal to law enforcement agencies.
In parliament, opposition MP Artsvik Minasyan questioned whether the videos had been filmed by the NSS, demanding accountability if that were the case. He further called on the government to investigate rumours linking individuals within Pashinyan’s administration to the leak. Harutyunyan rejected any connection between the government and the dissemination of the videos, insisting that such claims were politically motivated.
Khachatryan, who has been a vocal critic of Pashinyan, has not issued a detailed public statement beyond calling the allegations that it was him in the video, or that the video was even real, ‘vile slander’. The Mother See has not commented directly on the incident, but senior clergy privately described it as ‘an attack on the Church itself’.
Earlier this year, Pashinyan openly clashed with the clergy, accusing Khachatryan of moral corruption and describing him in public remarks as ‘immoral and shameless’. The confrontation, which began as a dispute over church authority and the government’s relationship with Catholicos Karekin II, has steadily escalated into a political and moral battle.
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