YEREVAN. – An appeal will be filed with the Court of Cassation either this or next week, and with respect to the case involving Hrachya Harutyunyan, who has been sentenced to prison in Russia. 

Armenia Human Rights Defender’s advisor Yeranuhi Tumanyants told about the abovementioned Armenian News-NEWS.am

As per Tumanyants, Harutyunyan’s attorneys find that the charges on Harutyunyan submitting false documents are groundless.

The Armenian ombudsman’s adviser stressed that according to Russian laws, however, the aforesaid court ruling already has  entered into force, and Harutyunyan is transferred to a detention facility as a convict.    

Tumanyants noted that, now, they will have to arrange with Harutyunyan’s relatives to be able to write petitions and commence the process of extraditing Hrachya Harutyunyan to Armenia.   

“[But] this does not interfere with the appeal; this process lasts quite long. The actual transference can take place [even] before a final decision is reached,” Yeranuhi Tumanyants added.         

Armenian citizen Hrachya Harutyunyan had pleaded guilty to causing a major traffic accident in Russia last year. The truck he was driving had crashed into a passenger bus on July 13, 2013 outside Moscow. The impact of the crash was so powerful that the bus had split in two. The accident claimed eighteen lives and injured more than forty others.

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 has unwittingly led to the death of two or more persons.” And the Moscow Municipal Court upheld this verdict.