High Court Upholds True Worship in “the Land of Ararat”

A gray-haired Armenian father of three stands before his nation’s highest court. His freedom and that of his many fellow believers hang in the balance. The Court listens as he quotes from the Bible to explain his beliefs. To understand how this hearing resulted in a grand victory for true worship in that land, let us examine the developments that led up to it.

ARMENIA lies east of Turkey and just south of the great Caucasus mountain range. It is home to more than three million people. The nation’s capital, Yerevan, enjoys a stunning view of the two peaks of Mount Ararat, where, according to tradition, Noah’s ark came to rest after the global Deluge.​—Genesis 8:4. *

Jehovah’s Witnesses have been carrying out their Christian activity in Armenia since 1975. After Armenia gained independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991, a State Council for Religious Affairs was created  to register religious organizations. However, this council has repeatedly refused to register Jehovah’s Witnesses, largely over the issue of Christian neutrality. Consequently, since 1991 more than 100 young Witnesses in Armenia have been convicted and in most cases imprisoned for their Bible-based stand on military service.

The Council also requested the government prosecutor’s office to investigate the religious activity of Lyova Margaryan, a Christian elder and a hardworking lawyer employed by the local atomic power plant. Eventually, Brother Margaryan was indicted under Article 244, a relic of Soviet law passed during the Khrushchev era, intended to hinder and ultimately eliminate Jehovah’s Witnesses and other religious groups.

That law makes it a crime to organize or lead a religious group that, under the guise of preaching religious beliefs, ‘lures young people into attending religious meetings of an unregistered religion’ and ‘influences members to refuse their civic duties.’ To support his claim, the prosecutor focused on the presence of minor children at meetings conducted by Brother Margaryan in the city of Metsamor. The prosecutor also alleged that Brother Margaryan had coerced young members of the congregation into refusing military service.

The Trial Begins

The trial began on Friday, July 20, 2001, in the Armavir district court with Justice Manvel Simonyan presiding. It continued well into August. During their testimony, witnesses for the prosecution eventually admitted that agents of the National Security Ministry (formerly the KGB) had dictated part of the written statements against Brother Margaryan and had coerced them into signing those statements. In one instance, a woman admitted that a certain Security Ministry official had instructed her to allege that “Jehovah’s Witnesses are against our government and our religion.” The woman confessed that she did not know any of Jehovah’s Witnesses personally but had only heard accusations against them on State television.

When his turn came, Brother Margaryan testified that minor children who attend meetings of Jehovah’s Witnesses do so with their parents’ permission. He also explained that military service is a personal decision. The prosecutor’s cross-examination continued for several days. Brother Margaryan, using the Bible, calmly answered questions about his beliefs, while the prosecutor checked the Scripture references in his own Bible.

On September 18, 2001, the judge pronounced Margaryan “not guilty,” stating that there “was no element of crime” in his activity. A telling report on the case appeared in the Associated Press. It read: “A leader of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Armenia was acquitted today on charges of proselytizing and of forcing young people to evade military service. After a two-month trial, the  Court said there was insufficient evidence against the leader, Levon Markarian [Lyova Margaryan]. He had faced up to five years in prison. . . . Though Armenia’s Constitution provides for freedom of religion, it is difficult for new groups to register and the rules favor the dominant Armenian Apostolic Church.” In its press release of September 18, 2001, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) stated: “Although welcoming the verdict, the OSCE Office continues to regret that the prosecution was launched in the first place.”

Prosecution Continues

Nonetheless, the prosecutors appealed, and the appeal trial took an additional four months. At the beginning of the trial, when it came time for Brother Margaryan to testify, the first question for him was propounded by a judge on the panel. As Brother Margaryan began to answer, the chairman interrupted and challenged him. Thereafter, she did not allow Brother Margaryan to finish answering even one question. Without offering reasons, she also excluded from the record most questions asked him by the defense. During the trial, anti-Witness religious fanatics, who had filled the courtroom, repeatedly hurled verbal abuse at Brother Margaryan. Following the session, numerous false and distorted reports on the trial were broadcast on television, stating, for instance, that Brother Margaryan had, in effect, admitted his own guilt.

About halfway through the trial, the chairman of the three-judge panel surprised onlookers by presenting a letter from the State Council for Religious Affairs demanding that the prosecutor’s office take measures against Brother Margaryan. This move shocked international observers at the trial, since in its application for membership in the Council of Europe, Armenia acknowledged its obligation to “ensure that all Churches or religious  communities, in particular those referred to as ‘non-traditional,’ may practise their religion without discrimination.”

As the trial continued through the following weeks, the atmosphere grew more tense. Opposers continued to harass and attack Witnesses inside and outside the courthouse. Witness women were kicked in the shins. When one Witness was assaulted but refused to retaliate, he was struck on the spine from behind and had to be hospitalized.

In the meantime, a new presiding judge was appointed to the case. Despite efforts by a few in the audience to intimidate the defense counsel, this new chairman maintained control, even ordering police to escort from the courtroom one woman who was shouting threats at the defense counsel.

On to Armenia’s Highest Court

Finally, on March 7, 2002, the appellate court upheld the verdict of the trial court. Curiously, the day before this verdict was announced, the State Council for Religious Affairs was disbanded. Once again, the prosecution appealed the decision, this time to Armenia’s highest court​—the Court of Cassation. The prosecutors now asked that the Court return the case for a retrial for “the handing down of a guilty verdict.”

A six-member panel of judges, chaired by Justice Mher Khachatryan, convened at 11:00 a.m. on April 19, 2002. In his opening statement, one of the prosecutors expressed great indignation that the two previous courts had failed to find Brother Margaryan guilty. This time, however, it was the prosecutor who was interrupted and pointedly questioned by four of the justices. One justice chastised the prosecutor for trying to prejudice the Court by including the preaching work and the unregistered status of Jehovah’s Witnesses in his submission against Brother Margaryan​—neither of which was defined as criminal in Article 244. The judge then described the prosecution’s actions as “persecution by means of a criminal case.” Another justice mentioned various European Court cases in which Jehovah’s Witnesses were recognized as a “known religion” entitled to protection by the European Convention on Human Rights. During this time, a priest in the courtroom screamed that Jehovah’s Witnesses were dividing the nation. The Court ordered him to keep silent.

The justices then called Lyova Margaryan out of the audience​—an unprecedented move for this high court. Brother Margaryan gave a fine witness regarding Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Christian position on various issues. (Mark 13:9) After a short deliberation, the Court returned and unanimously upheld the “not guilty” verdict. Brother Margaryan was visibly relieved. In their written decision, the Court stated: “This activity [of Lyova Margaryan] is not deemed a crime by existing law, and this type of accusation contradicts Article 23 of the Armenian Constitution and Article 9 of the European Convention.”

Effects of the Decision

Had the prosecution been successful, it would have paved the way for legal action against other Witness elders in congregations all across Armenia. Hopefully, the clear decision handed down by the Court will prevent such harassment. An unfavorable decision could also have become a pretext to continue denying registration to Jehovah’s Witnesses. Thankfully, the Court has now removed this false pretext.

Time will tell whether registration will be granted to the more than 7,000 Witnesses of Jehovah in this country. In the meantime, true worship is still alive and well in “the land of Ararat.”

[Footnote]

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Lyova Margaryan at his trial

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Brother Margaryan and his family