YEREVAN. – Minister of Justice of Armenia Hovhannes Manukyan on Monday received Anahit and Viktor Martirosyan, the wife and father-in-law of Armenian citizen Hrachya Harutyunyan who is serving a prison sentence in Russia.

The minister informed them that the matter of Harutyunyan’s extradition to Armenia is in progress, Manukyan wrote in his personal website.

Manukyan added that, based on Anahit Martirosyan’s petitioned to the Ministry of Justice of Armenia with a request to have her husband extradited to Armenia to serve the remaining of his sentence in his country, the ministry had petitioned to the Ministry of Justice of Russia, with a request to provide all necessary information to be able to extradite Harutyunyan to Armenia, and all relevant documents which the European Convention specifies.

The minister informed that he awaits a response from the Russian ministry, but also assured that everything possible is done have the Armenian citizen extradited to his country.

Viktor Martirosyan, for his part, stated that he has faith that Harutyunyan ultimately will be extradited to Armenia.

As reported earlier, Armenian citizen Hrachya Harutyunyan had pleaded guilty to causing a major traffic accident in Russia. 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 had claimed eighteen lives and injured more than forty others.

On August 4, 2014, a Moscow district court had 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 had upheld this verdict.