News

The investigating bodies of the Russia’s Investigative Committee for the Republic of Buryatia continue investigating a criminal case opened over the death of a 7-year-old boy in the village of Ilyinka in an unfenced foundation pit used for domestic waste. Investigators have studied carefully all the materials and restored the picture of the incident. They have come to a conclusion that the child’s death was due to breaches in making the cathcpit organized by head of the rural settlement of Ilyinskoye 49-year-old Viktor Otto. Based on the evidence the official has already been charged with a crime under part 2 of article 293 of the RF Penal Code (improper discharge by an official of their duties due to negligent attitude to their service entailing death of a person).

According to investigators, on 29 August 2014, local residents asked Otto to make a catchpit near a house in the village of Ilyinka, Baikal District, Buryatia. He ordered to dig up a foundation pit. But then the work was suspended and the pit was forgotten and left unenclosed. Children started freely using the pit and a mound of sand for playing. However despite the obvious danger for children the head of the settlement did nothing. The foundation pit stayed open, but no catchpit was made whatsoever.

On 5 September 2014, a 7-year-old boy and a girl came to play at the pit after school. They went to the bottom of the pit. At that moment the sandy walls of the pit caved in and buried the two children. Passers-by heard the girl calling for help and pulled her from the pit. Fortunately, she was not hurt. Then the adults found the boy’s dead body. He died of suffocating on the sand.

The investigators have questioned 26 witnesses, carried out 5 examinations of the site, 3 seizures and fixed 2 expert examinations. The investigation is supervised by the 4^th procedural control office (controlling investigations committed by underage or against underage children) of the Russia’s Investigative Committee. The office has given the regional investigations directorate a number of explicit orders about the direction of the investigation and to find out all the circumstances of the incident.

This is not the only such death of a child in the region. On 18 September 2014, an 8-year-old boy died in under similar circumstances while playing on a sports ground, where digging was underway, in the village of Onokhoy-2, Zaigrayevo District, Buryatia. The investigating bodies of the Russia’s Investigative Committee for the Republic of Buryatia opened a criminal case under part 1 of article 109 of the RF Penal Code (reckless homicide).

According to investigators, on 18 September 2014, in the afternoon, four boys aged between 8 and 10 played in a hockey box near a school in the village of Onokhoy-2. The deputy chief of a military unit, whose premises the sport ground was located on, had ordered to bring there some sand to reconstruct the sports ground. The children dug up holes and made trenches in the sand. Three of the children left the sports ground for a short period of time. One boy kept playing alone. Most likely, he dug a whole and got into it. At that moment the sand from the mound slid down and buried the boy. The boy died at the scene.

In addition, to deaths of children on such unfenced construction sites, local investigating bodies are investigating death of a child, who fell into an open sewage well. On 4 May 2014, a 4-year-old boy fell in a sewage well on the premises of Ilyinskoye hospital. Instead of a standard lid, it had only a wooden cover on it. The investigators launched a case over a crime under part 1 of article 109 of the RF Penal Code (reckless homicide).

The investigators are going to identify not only all responsible for the death of children, but to study carefully all the causes and conditions that contributed to the crimes. Additionally, during the investigation the accidents that happened with children will be summarized and proper requests to provide security of construction and communal facilities that would prevent children and teenagers from getting to them freely will be filed with state and municipal authorities.