Armenian driver of the bus travelling from Moscow to Yerevan, which had crashed in Russia's Tula province, has been sentenced to 4.5 years of penal settlement, the district prosector's office reports.

''Today, on August 2, Uzlovsky city court, convicted the citizen of the Republic of Armenia, Garnik Harutyunyan, 45.  The court has  inflicted punishment in the form of 4 years and 6 months of service of sentence in a penal settlement with the revocation of the right to drive transportation means for three years,'' the statement of the prosecutor's office reads, RIA Novosti reports.

The passenger bus, which was traveling from Moscow to Yerevan, had the accident on November 3 last year, in the Uzlovsky District in Tula Oblast (province), Russia.

There were over 60 passengers on the bus, all of them Armenian citizens. Consequently, 9 people died and 46 sustained injuries. 32 people were hospitalized. A criminal case was opened against the driver under the article of ''violation of traffic rules, negligently resulting in the deaths of two or more persons,'' which stipulates until seven years in prison. Custody was chosen as a preventive measure against the driver.