Epress.am News from Armenia
The Ural vehicle belonging to one of the military units of Armenia’s Defense Ministry, which was involved in a fatal car crash last year that claimed the life of 21-year-old conscript Vardan Matevosyan, had faults in its braking system which competent persons had been aware of beforehand. Moreover, the vehicle, which went off the road en route to Armash village and fell into a gorge while transporting 11 servicemen, was not equipped with appropriate seats, while its trunk was overloaded with furniture, according to a statement released by the press service of Armenia’s Investigative Committee on Wednesday.
In a conversation with Epress.am, the mother of the deceased soldier, Naira Eremyan, said the vehicle was originally intended only for transportation of property. “They were supposed to send two cars: one to transport the kids, and the other for the furniture. But instead, they were only given this one Ural. Why would [military officials] want to spend extra money or gasoline?” According to the woman, transporting the servicemen and the furniture in the same car was a violation of the law.
Yeremyan added that late last year the family were informed that they were involved in the case as an injured party, and that the case would be sent to court early in 2017.
According to the Investigative Committee’s statement, four people, including Ural’s driver A. Azizyan, have been arrested in connection with the incident: Azizyan, along with major K.Vahanyan and officer H.Hovhannisyan who were in charge of the vehicle’s technical supervision, has been charged under Article 377.2 of Armenia’s criminal code (breach of rules for driving or operating combat, special or transportation vehicles, which negligently caused a human death).
Major G. Gevorgyan, the deputy commander of the military unit’s 3rd battalion, has been charged under article 375.1 (significant abuse of power) for failing to properly equip the vehicle and ensure that the servicemen and the furniture were transported in separate cars.