Tatarstan investigating bodies of the Russia’s Investigative Committee have launched a criminal investigation against CEO of OAO Investment Construction Company and ZAO Facility Manager AS Management Robert Khayrullin, 40 and Chairman of Board of Directors of ZAO Facility Manager AS Management Aleksey Semin, 41.
They are suspected of crimes under part 3 of article 219 of the RF Penal Code (violation of fire safety requirements entailing be negligence death of two or more people), part 2 of article 201 (abuse of office entailing grave consequences), part 1 of article 327 (forgery of an ID or any other official entitling document or such dispensing from duties for the purpose of using such a document or selling it), part 3 of article 238 (providing work or services not meeting life or health safety standards entailing death of two or more people by negligence).
Robert Khayrullin was detained on 14 March as a result of carefully planned and efficient investigative and search operations.
According to preliminary information, for the purpose of getting profit from demising shopping capacities, in 2014, Khayrullin and Semin bought 4 properties in Klara Tsetkin street, which before having been reconstructed had housed production facilities of ZAO Serp i Molot.
On 15 March 2008, Khayrullin issued a resolution to unite all 4 workshops in a single building to be used as a shopping center. The man did not provide any information on the reconstruction and therefore later filed false data on the property with Technical Inventory Bureau and Tatarstan Office of the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadaster and Cartography. In January 2009, Khayrullin received a technical passport and a cadaster passport of the property which then entitled him to register his ownership on the property as a shopping center. Besides, under the contract of lease of non-residential facility the owners demised it to OOO Zarya to be operated as the Admiral shopping center.
This way, since 2013, the property holding a large number of people has been operated illegally as a shopping center without a permission of putting into operation a facility after capital construction (reconstruction) and with gross violations of fire safety rules. There were no fire alarms. The layout was not changed to make it easier for people to evacuate or prevent a fire and smoke from spreading quickly.
Eventually, in the afternoon of 11 March 2015, a fire 18.2 thousand square meters in area started at the Admiral shopping center in Klara Tsetkin street in the city of Kazan. According to the latest data 23 people were injured and 17 were killed in the fire: 13 of them were found under the debris and 4 died at hospital.
A court will soon consider placing the suspects in custody pending trial.
At present investigative operations are underway to find out all the circumstances of the crime. The investigation is ongoing.
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