Garegin was indicted and banned from leaving Armenia one day after Pashinian pledged to prevent an episcopal conference organized by the church. The bishop, Gevorg Saroyan, was dismissed earlier in January as head of the church’s Masyatsotn Diocese encompassing parts of Armenia’s southern Ararat province. Lawyers representing the church maintain that Armenian courts have no jurisdiction over internal church affairs. Garegin is the first supreme head of the church prosecuted in Armenia’s post-Soviet history. Three Armenian archbishops and one bishop were arrested in the following months on different charges strongly denied by them.