A Yerevan court today sentenced a police officer to eighteen months imprisonment for running over and killing a pregnant woman while she was crossing a street in downtown Yerevan in April 2022.

The officer, Aram Navasardyan, was driving a police SUV escorting PM Nikol Pashinyan’s motorcade through Yerevan. The SUV struck 28-year-old Sona Mnatsakanyan and didn’t stop.

A video showing Pashinyan’s limousine and six other cars in the motorcade driving past the hit woman spawned a flurry of outrage on social media outlets in Armenia at the time.

The three-year investigation concluded in July of this year when the court found Navasardyan guilty of violating traffic rules and driving away from the accident.

The court ordered Navarsadyan to pay AMD four million ($10,440) in damages to Mnatsakanyan’s family. Navarsadyan will also have to pay AMD 834,000 in court expenses.

Navasardyan’s defense team unsuccessfully claimed the dead woman failed to give way to Pashinyan’s motorcade based on her “political viewpoints” and intentionally stepped into the path of the passing cars.

Photo: Aram Navasardyan, Sona Mnatsakanyan