While Vardan Petrosyan, the performance artist sentenced on January 29 to five years for his complicity in a deadly October 2013 car accident that killed two teenagers will not be appealing the verdict, the family of the victims will.

Yesterday was the deadline for filing an appeal of the January 29 verdict.

Rouben Baloyan, attorney for the Hakobyan family, told Hetq that in their appeal they would be seeking 8 million AMD in compensation for medical treatment regarding one of the injured, Tatevik Hakobyan.

The lower court only sustained the 1.2 million AMD compensation claim made by the ministry of agriculture. The court never even reviewed the monetary claim made by the victims’ family.

They have also appealed the five year sentence handed down to Petrosyan, arguing that he should have been given a minimum of six years. Baloyan told Hetq that the lower court did not take into account that in addition to the two deaths, four other passengers in the car were injured, one seriously.

A third demand is that Petrosyan be deprived of his right to drive in Armenia for three years and not the two declared by the lower court.

During the year long trial Petrosyan always claimed his innocence, arguing that he did not violate any traffic laws and that the other car backed into the roadway, leaving him no chance to swerve away.