Priton Kenkebashvili, one of the two lawyers defending Ashot Sukiasyan, now being held in Tbilisi for extradition to Armenia, told Hetq that he’s been taken off the case by the person who hired him.

Kenkebashvili says a friend of Shoushanik, Sukiasyan’s wife, informed him and his colleague that his services were no longer required.

The lawyer told Hetq that clergymen had gone to see Sukiasyan. When Hetq asked if they were from the Armenian Apostolic Church or Georgian Orthodox Church, the lawyer couldn’t say.

Hetq then contacted the Diocese of the Armenian Church in Tbilisi and was told that no one had gone to see Sukiasyan.

Sukiasyan, the businessman implicated in the Cyprus offshore case, was arrested at Tbilisi International Airport on January 31 after embarking from a flight from Istanbul.

Armenian police issued a search warrant for Sukiasyan last June and charged him with large-scale embezzlement and money laundering.