The middle-aged man felt unwell at a court in Yerevan on Monday as he attended the latest hearing on the death of the 28-year-old Sona Mnatsakanian.
“He simply told me, ‘I don't feel well, let me go out for a minute,’” said Raffi Aslanian, the lawyer representing Mnatsakanian’s family. “Moments later, they came and took his coat away, saying that an ambulance took him to hospital. It looked like a heart attack, which was later confirmed in the hospital.”
Mnatsakanian was struck by the police SUV while crossing a street in central Yerevan. The vehicle did not stop after the collision. Its driver, police Major Aram Navasardian, was twice arrested by investigators but freed by courts despite being charged with reckless driving and negligence. The Armenian police did not fire or even suspend him.
Navasardian continued to deny the accusations when he went on trial in November 2022. His lawyers blame the young woman for her death.
Mnatsakanian’s parents and other relatives have repeatedly alleged a high-level coverup of the accident. They have pointed to investigators’ failure to prosecute any members of Pashinian’s security detail.
Nor has there been a formal inquiry into the disappearance of what would have been a key piece of evidence: the audio of radio conversations among security personnel that escorted Pashinian that day. Security services claim that the conversations were not recorded due to a technical malfunction.
“It seems that we are fighting against the state apparatus,” Mnatsakanian’s uncle told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service last year.
Her father, Mnatsakan Mnatsakanian, is also in poor health, having recently undergone a third heart surgery. He was unable to comment on Tuesday.
The victim’s family is also unhappy with the slow pace of the trial of Navasardian, the sole suspect in the case. Aslanian again charged that the law-enforcement authorities want to drag it out until the statute of limitations for the crime attributed to the policeman expires in 2027.
Pashinian’s limousine and six other cars making up his motorcade drove past the dying woman moments after the accident. The prime minister never publicly commented on her death.