The 28-year-old Sona Mnatsakanian was hit by the 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. The Armenian police did not fire or suspend him even after he went on trial in November 2022.
In an initial ruling handed down on July 30, a Yerevan court convicted Navasardian of reckless driving and negligence. The judge presiding over the trial, Karen Farkhoyan, took more than two weeks to set the short prison sentence for the crime.
Prosecutors demanded a slightly longer jail term, two and a half years, for the defendant. The latter was also ordered to pay Mnatsakanian’s family 4 million drams ($10,500) in damages.
The family pledged to appeal against the verdict, saying that Navasardian deserves as a tougher punishment. The victim’s farther, Mnatsakan Mnatsakanian, was very pessimistic about the appeal. He said the policeman will likely avoid going to prison.
The prison sentence given to Navasardian will take effect only if it is upheld by higher courts.
Navasardian, who denies the accusations, was also unhappy with the ruling. His lawyer, Ruben Baloyan, again insisted that the defendant did not breach a 100-kilometer/hour speed limit set by the government. According to the results of forensic tests cited by investigators, the police car driven by Navasardian raced through Yerevan at about 109 kilometers/hour (68 miles/hour).
The victim’s family repeatedly demanded earlier that criminal charges be also brought against two senior bodyguards of Pashinian who were in a position to determine the speed of the motorcade. Prosecutors rejected the demands, sparking more allegations of a coverup.
The allegations were also fueled by 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 they were not recorded due to a technical malfunction.
Opposition politicians and other critics have blamed Pashinian for the accident. The prime minister denied any responsibility for it during a July 16 news conference.
“Don’t you understand that it wasn’t my convoy, it was the bus of Armenia’s prime minister, to put it bluntly?” he said.
Pashinian’s limousine and six other cars making up his convoy drove past the dying woman.