It is still unknown when Armenian truck driver will be transferred to Armenia
Armenian national Hrachya Harutyunyan, sentenced to over seven years’ imprisonment over a fatal car crash in Russia that left 18 bus passengers dead, is in a good health condition. The relatives are waiting for the Court of Appeals to announce the day of its sitting. After the sitting, they will probably transfer Harutyunyan to Armenia. Talking to A1+, Harutyunyan’s daughter Lilit Harutyunyan said they had not been able to speak to her father all this time and received information about him fom the lawyer and relatives. On July 13, 2013, near Podolsk, just outside of Moscow, the breaks of the truck Hrachya Harutyunyan was driving gave out, and the truck hit a bus, killing 18 passengers and injuring another 40. More than 30 people were hospitalized. The Armenian national also sustained injuries. In this state, he was taken immediately from the hospital to the courtroom dressed in a woman’s housecoat, where he constantly tried to hide his face from the camera and wept. This treatment of a citizen of Armenia sparked a wave of protests outside the Russian Embassy in Yerevan. Armenian media condemned the display as a deliberate affront to personal dignity and a display of Russian xenophobia and racism. The investigation revealed that the accident resulted from poor maintenance of the truck resulting in a brake malfunction. Harutyunyan, according to investigators, was to know about it. In summer, a Russian prosecutor demands that the Armenian truck driver be sentenced to 7 years in prison.
