An appeal has been filed with the Court of Appeals, and with respect to the case involving Hrachya Harutyunyan—whom a Moscow district court had sentenced to six years and nine months in prison—, but the date of the respective court hearing is still unknown.   

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

The appeal refers to the charges of “knowingly using forged documents.”          

Tumanyants said that even though the verdict against Hrachya Harutyunyan will not change even if the appeal is granted, this is a matter of principle for Harutyunyan’s attorneys because you cannot accuse a man of doing something he did not do.  

In addition, Harutyunyan has not expressed a wish to appeal his sentence.

Tumanyants added that if no new appeals are filed, the court decision will go into effect and, subsequently, the matter of transferring Harutyunyan back to Armenia will be discussed.  

About five years and six months remain until the completion of his sentence.

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 “knowingly using forged documents.”