Will Hrachya Harutyunyan be extradited to Armenia?
The fate of Hrachya Harutyunyan, an Armenian truck driver sentenced to 6 years and 9 months in prison by a Moscow court, will be discussed with the Deputy Minister of Justice. The news was relayed to A1+ Company by Victor Martirosyan, the father of Harutyunyan’s wife. Harutyunyan is serving his prison term in Tambov’s penitentiary institution in Russia and has been in custody for four years. The meeting with the official will be held on Tuesday. Victor Martirosyan thinks they will discuss Harutyunyan’s possible extradition. On July 13, 2013 the gravel-loaded truck driven by Hrachya Harutyunyan, an Armenian citizen working in Russia, collided with a packed commuter bus outside the Russian capital. The impact of the crash was so powerful that the bus had split in two. The accident claimed 18 lives and injured more than forty others. 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. On August 4, a Moscow district court sentenced Hrachya Harutyunyan to six years and nine months in prison on charges of “violating traffic and vehicle operation rules, which unwittingly led to the death of two or more persons.” The Moscow Municipal Court upheld this verdict.
