Eighteen-year-old Davit Minasyan, detained following an incident at St. Anna Church in Yerevan, is being transferred to the Abovyan penitentiary facility to continue his school education, taking into account his age and best interests.

The information was confirmed by Nona Navikyan, spokesperson for Armenia’s Penitentiary Service, Sputnik Armenia reports.

Earlier, Minasyan’s lawyer Lusine Martirosyan had stated that her client was being transferred from Armavir prison to the Abovyan facility.

“The decision is based on the best interests of the individual, considering the detainee’s age and the importance of ensuring continuity of secondary education,” Navikyan said.

Davit Minasyan, 18, is a 12th-grade student. The Abovyan penitentiary is designed for women and juveniles, but the law allows individuals who have reached adulthood to remain there until the age of 21 if they demonstrate good behavior. Education for minors is organized within the facility.

Human rights defender Zhanna Aleksanyan wrote on Facebook that if anything happens to Minasyan, full responsibility lies with the prosecutor general and the justice minister.

“Lawyers claim that 18-year-old Davit Minasyan, recently imprisoned, has health conditions incompatible with prison conditions. This means he should not be in detention.

Therefore, if anything happens to him, full responsibility lies with these officials, not with Nikol Pashinyan. The latter today spoke about himself in the third person as a ‘protected individual’ and explained that force could even be used in such cases. He drew parallels with the Paplavok case of Poghos Poghosyan’s killing and asked, ‘Don’t you see the difference?’ Indeed, we do not see the difference, but Nikol Pashinyan does — he feels that compared to Kocharyan, he is perfect,” the post states.

On March 29, an incident involving Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan occurred at St. Anna Church. Following this, 18-year-old twin brothers Davit and Mikael Minasyan, along with public figure Gevorg Gevorgyan, were detained on suspicion of hooliganism and interfering with the lawful official and political activities of an official. In total, three individuals were detained. Mikael Minasyan and Gevorg Gevorgyan were released under a ban on leaving and a bail of 5 million drams, while Davit Minasyan was placed in pre-trial detention for two months by a court decision on April 1.