The woman’s father also held Pashinian responsible for her death, saying that his motorcade drove through Yerevan too fast.
“Where did the prime minister rush?” said Mnatsakan Mnatsakanian. “Was he running away from someone?”
Mnatsakanian’s 29-year-old daughter Sona was struck by a police SUV while crossing a street in the city center on April 26. The vehicle did not stop after the collision that sparked more opposition calls for Pashinian’s resignation. Its driver, police Major Aram Navasardian, was arrested hours later.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee charged Navasardian with violating traffic rules but released him shortly afterwards. The law-enforcement agency arrested the policeman again a few days later after a prosecutor ordered it to also charge him with fleeing the scene and not helping the victim.
A Yerevan court of first instance refused to sanction the arrest, however, forcing the Investigative Committee to free Navasardian. A higher court rejected last Friday the investigators’ appeal against that decision.
The victim’s father deplored the court orders, saying that the police officer may be influencing eyewitnesses of the accident. “Since the prime minister personally called me and offered his condolences I hoped that there will be a fair investigation,” he said.
“It’s possible that were was an order from the [country’s] supreme leadership not to arrest the driver,” Mnatsakan Mnatsakanian added at a joint news conference with Raffi Aslanian, a lawyer representing his family.
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian inspects new Patrol Police vehicles in Gyumri, April 16, 2022.
Aslanian claimed, for his part, that a state security agency has destroyed “important pieces of evidence” in the case. He refused to name the agency or shed light on that evidence, citing the secrecy of the investigation.
Navasardian, the indicted policeman, denies the accusations leveled against him. His lawyer cited in April a government directive allowing government motorcades to move at up to 100 kilometers/hour (62 miles/hour) in Yerevan.
According to Mnatsakanian Sr., forensic tests conducted by investigators found that the police car raced through the city at almost 109 kilometers/hour (68 miles/hour).
“Had he not exceeded the [speed] limit my daughter or my unborn grandchild may have stayed alive,” said the grief-stricken father.
Pashinian’s limousine and the six other cars making up his motorcade also drove past the dying woman and did not help her either. The prime minister has still not publicly commented on her death.
The deputy chief of Pashinian’s staff, Taron Chakhoyan, claimed on April 27 that the motorcade would have caused a traffic jam and made it harder for an ambulance to reach the victim had it stopped right after the crash. Opposition figures and other government critics brushed aside that explanation, blaming Pashinian for the woman’s death.