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Court orders to pay 2 million roubles in damages to the relatives of four children who drowned in the Sea of Azov

Moscow court orders to pay a compensation of two million roubles to the parents of four children who drowned in the Sea of Azov
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, February 8 (Itar-Tass) — On Wednesday Moscow's Zyuzino court  ordered the city's School of Health # 1065 to pay a compensation of two million roubles to the parents of four children who drowned off the Yeisk sand bar in the Sea of Azov.

"The court partially met our damages suit. Also, the court ordered to compensate the expenses on funeral arrangements to one of the families," lawyer of the injured parties Igor Trunov said.

The injured parties filed for four-million-rouble compensations. But the court, after hearing the arguments of the parties set the sum of compensation at 500,000 roubles for each plaintiff.

Initially, the court turned down their lawsuit on the ground that the teachers of state comprehensive schools were not civil servants, so the treasury was not obliged to pay compensations.

The fatal incident occurred on the Yeisk sand bar on July 7, 2010. Two groups of 65 schoolchildren led by the  teachers of "School of Health" # 1065 Irina Ryabova and Alexei Bagryantsev arrived in the Azov recreation camp in the Yeisk district.

According to the investigators, during an excursion along the Yeisk sand bar, Ryabova let children bathe in the sea, without checking the bathing area for safety first.

As the weather dramatically worsened and the wind got stronger, and bathing children were carried to deeper areas. Six children and a teacher who tried to save them, drowned. Another child suffered a serious damage to health.

Ryabova was charged with negligence that resulted in the death of two or more persons.

Bagryantsev was accused of negligence that caused serious harm to health or a person's death.

During the preliminary hearings, the defendants pleaded guilty to negligence charges, and asked to review their case under the special procedure where the inquest is unnecessary.

On July 1, the court sentenced Ryabova and Bagryantsev to 2.5 to 4 years in a penal colony and banned them from taking jobs in education for three years.

In August, the Krasnodar Territory court upheld the verdict by the Yeisk town court.

Relatives of the dead children insisted that the verdict was too soft.