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 despite being charged with reckless driving and negligence. The Armenian police did not fire or suspend him even after he went on trial in November 2022.
Mnatsakanian’s parents have repeatedly alleged an official coverup of the accident. They have pointed to investigators’ failure to prosecute any members of Pashinian’s security detail.
The lawyer representing them, Raffi Aslanian, again demanded earlier this year that criminal charges be also brought against two other, more senior officers who were in charge of the motorcade. He says that they failed to comply with a legal speed limit set for government motorcades and to block street crossings along the route of Pashinian’s journey.
The prosecutor overseeing the investigation rejected the demand on Thursday. Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General on Friday declined to comment on the decision.
“It’s obvious that an objective investigation has not been conducted with or without an intervention by the prime minister,” Aslanian told RFE/RLs Armenian Service.
Aslanian also accused the prosecutors of not investigating the absence 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.
The lawyer said he will challenge the prosecutor’s decision in court “even though the outcome of our appeals is predictable under the current government.”
The victim’s family is also unhappy with the slow pace of the continuing trial of Navasardian, the sole suspect in the case. Mnatsakan Mnatsakanian, Sona’s father, on Friday again accused the law-enforcement authorities of deliberately dragging out it.
The most recent session of the trial had been scheduled for August 29. The presiding judge adjourned it until November due to the absence of Navasardian lawyers.
One of those lawyers, Ruben Baloyan, denied a delay tactic and continued to blame Sona Mnatsakanian for her death.
According to Aslanian, forensic tests conducted during the probe found that the police car driven by Navasardian raced through Yerevan at almost 109 kilometers/hour (68 miles/hour), breaching a 100-kilometer/hour speed limit set by the Armenian government. The accused policeman’s lawyers insist that he did not drive over that limit.
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.