MOSCOW. – The health condition of Armenian driver Hrachya Harutyunyan, who is serving a prison sentence in Russia, is normal at the moment.

Armenian embassy in Moscow adviser Levon Torgomyan, who meets with Harutyunyan and the    prison authorities from time to time, told the aforesaid to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

“Hrachya Harutyunyan has spinal hernia, and he needs treatment from time to time, since it is expressed, or not expressed, from external effects—weather, humidity,” said Torgomyan. “It was expressed in late May, and he received appropriate medical assistance.”

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 in July 2013, outside capital city Moscow. The impact of the crash was so powerful that the bus, which was carrying 64 passengers, had split in two. The accident had claimed 18 lives and injured more than 40 others.

In April 2015, a Moscow district court sentenced Harutyunyan to 6 years and 9 months in prison on charges of violating traffic and vehicle operation rules and causing death. And the Moscow Municipal Court upheld this verdict.

For the past one year, however, the Armenian side is seeking to have Hrachya Harutyunyan extradited to Armenia.