The Armenian Interior Ministry released a short video of the incident meant to absolve Pashinian of any blame for the accident that reportedly occurred inside a local village. It shows one car making a U-turn, hitting another and then bumping into a road police vehicle, parked a few meters away, moments after the passage of the long motorcade.
All three injured persons were hospitalized from the scene. Two of them were discharged from hospital on Monday.
The ministry insisted that the accident was not caused by Pashinian’s limousine, vehicles of his bodyguards accompanying it or police cars that led the motorcade or regulated traffic along its way.
Tigran Keyan, who leads a non-governmental organization protecting motorists’ rights, put the blame on the road police, saying that they did not act professionally enough.
“The escorting team didn’t its job properly, and as a result we are having this problem,” Keyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Some prominent lawyers critical of the Armenian government also disputed the official version of events. One of them, Yervand Varosian, said the the Interior Ministry video only “proved that the accident occurred as a result of the highway being hastily blocked for Nikol's convoy.”
“No impartial person can claim that Nikol Pashinian’s deadly motorcade was unrelated to the accident that fortunately ended with [non-fatal] injuries this time around,” wrote another lawyer, Raffi Aslanian.
Aslanian represents the family of Sona Mnatsakanian, a 28-year-old pregnant woman who died in Yerevan in April 2022 after being hit by a police car leading Pashinian’s motorcade. The car’s driver, Major Aram Navasardian, was twice arrested by investigators but freed by courts despite being charged with reckless driving and negligence. The Armenian police did not fire or even suspend him.
Navasardian continues to deny the accusations during his ongoing slow trial that began in November 2022. His lawyers blame the young woman for her death.
Mnatsakanian’s parents and other relatives have repeatedly alleged a high-level coverup of the accident. They have pointed to investigators’ failure to prosecute any members of Pashinian’s security detail.
Nor has there been a formal inquiry into the disappearance of what would have been a key piece of evidence: the audio of radio conversations among security personnel that escorted Pashinian that day. Security services claim that the conversations were not recorded due to a technical malfunction.
Pashinian’ limousine and six other cars making up his motorcade drove past the dying woman moments after the accident. The prime minister never publicly commented on her death.
