Family Of Woman Killed By Pashinyan’s Motorcade Again Cries Foul

“In other cases that involve issues connected with the prime minister [suspects] are punished very quickly,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

One of the defense lawyers, Ruben Baloyan, rejected the claim as “absurd.” He said they did not show up on Thursday because they represented another client in a murder case heard by an appeals court.

Sona Mnatsakanyan’s parents have also been very critical of the pre-trial criminal investigation into her death. In particular, they have pointed to the investigators’ failure to prosecute any members of Pashinyan’s security detail or another policeman who was supposed to block pedestrians’ access to the street section where the police vehicle ran over Sona.

The victim’s family has also accused the investigators of withholding key evidence. That includes audio of radio conversations among security personnel that escorted Pashinyan that day. Security services told the investigators that they were not recorded due to a technical malfunction.

“I think that the recordings were deleted because the upper echelons [of authority] interfered in this case,” claimed Mnatsakan Mnatsakanyan.

Forensic tests conducted during the probe reportedly found that the police car driven by Navasardyan raced through Yerevan at almost 109 kilometers/hour (68 miles/hour), breaching a 100-kilometer/hour speed limit set for government motorcades. Baloyan, the policeman’s lawyer, again insisted, however, that he did not drive over that limit.