News

Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin instructed the Central Office to supervise the investigation initiated by the Penza Regional Investigations Directorate in connection with the death of two men in a pothole with hot water. Mass media reported that a car fell into a pothole of boiling water formed in the asphalt in Penza, which resulted in the death of two people. The failure of the soil was caused by a hot water pipe burst. The Penza Regional Investigations Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia immediately launched a probe under Part 3 of Article 109 (infliction of death by negligence on two people) of the Criminal Code of Russia. Alexander Bastrykin instructed to give a general and objective legal assessment of the incident, to identify the persons responsible, and to bring them to lawfully appropriate justice. The investigation will be supervised by the Central Office of the Investigative Committee.

In addition, the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia has referred to the supervision of the Central Office the probes initiated by the Sverdlovsk Regional Investigations Directorate into the death of a one-year-old boy in Yekaterinburg, by the Moscow Main Investigations Directorate into private healthcare facility’s rendering medical services non-compliant with the safety standards, and by the Kabardino-Balkar Republican Investigations Directorate into a possible violation of the rights of a woman living in unfit conditions.

One of the federal TV channels broadcast a report on the death of a one-year-old boy in Yekaterinburg--according to a preliminary version, from meningitis. The boy’s mother said that she picked the child up from the kindergarten with a fever, and the nursery teachers allegedly did not react to the child’s illness. At home, the infant got worse and was taken by an ambulance to a hospital, where he died a few hours later. On November 17, 2019, the Sverdlovsk Regional Investigations Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened a pre-investigative probe into this fact. In order to establish the exact cause of death, medical documentation is being collected for a forensic examination. A histological examination is also carried out, the results of which will be analyzed during a forensic examination.

Another report of the federal TV channel was devoted to a story about workers of a private hospital in the West of Moscow who put a patient to a medically-induced coma without granting permission to her relatives to transfer her to another hospital. According to the woman, the employees of the medical institution refused to release her sister due to existing arrears of payments for medical services. During negotiations, the patient died in the hospital. At present, the investigators are carrying out a set of required assessment activities aimed to establish all circumstances and causes of the incident. Within the framework of the pre-investigative probe, investigators of the Moscow Main Investigations Directorate will give a legal assessment to the situation determining a possible offense under Article 238 of the Criminal Code of Russia (rendering services non-compliant with the safety standards).

In another news report, a journalist told about a challenging living situation of a woman from the Prokhladny town of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic. The family with six children bought an old house and moved from Krasnodar Territory but was unable to live in the house due to its emergency condition. According to the report, the local administration provided them with a dormitory hall transformed into a big room, which was also unfit for living. The Kabardino-Balkar Republican Investigations Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia launched a pre-investigative probe into this matter aimed to give an assessment to the actions of the guardianship and juvenile authorities, and Prokhladny Administration officials.

Following the probes, procedural decisions will be made.

Official spokesperson for the Investigative Committee of Russia S. Petrenko