RFE/RL – Court Upholds Short Jail Term For Pashinian Motorcade Officer

The 28-year-old Sona Mnatsakanian was hit by the SUV while crossing a street in central Yerevan. The vehicle’s 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.

A Yerevan court of first instance sentenced Navasardian to 18 months in prison last August after convicting him of reckless driving and negligence. It also ordered him to pay Mnatsakanian’s family 4 million drams ($10,800) in damages. The family appealed against the verdict, saying that Navasardian must be jailed for at least four years.

The policeman, who denies the accusations, also lodged an appeal, insisting that he did not breach a 100-kilometer/hour speed limit set by the Armenian government. According to the results of forensic tests cited by investigators, the police car driven by him raced through Yerevan at about 109 kilometers/hour (68 miles/hour).

Both sides are unhappy with the latest ruling as well. They said they will now appeal to the Court of Cassation. Navasardian will go to prison only if the prison sentence is upheld by the higher court before the statute of limitations for the crime attributed to him expires next year. The victim’s family suspects that law-enforcement and judicial authorities have been dragging out court proceedings to save him from imprisonment.

The family has repeatedly demanded 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 have rejected the demands, sparking more allegations of a coverup. The allegations also stem from the suspicious disappearance of the audio of radio conversations among security personnel that escorted Pashinian that day.

Opposition politicians and other critics have blamed Pashinian for the accident. The prime minister denies any responsibility for it. He has compared himself to innocent passengers of a bus running over a pedestrian.

Pashinian’s limousine and six other cars making up his motorcade drove past the dying woman moments after the accident. Navasardian also did not stop to help her.

Mnatsakanian’s mother, Armine Makinian, went to the Court of Appeals on Wednesday to not only hear its ruling but also “look [Navasardian] in the eyes.”

“In the morning, I met him in the court’s yard and said what has accumulated in my heart for these four years,” said Makinian. “That man does not admit his guilt, he does not admit his guilt at all.”

The grief-stricken woman also blamed Pashinian for her daughter’s death and said he must apologize to all Armenians.

“It’s your job, you organize that work, your subordinates organize that work,” she said. “If you don’t organize it properly, then it’s your fault too.”

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