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Police chief, other officers suspended after detained man dies

A number of senior officials of the Russian Interior Ministry's Kazan department were brought to disciplinary account

MOSCOW, March 12 (Itar-Tass) — The chief of the police office in Kazan is suspended, after a man, who was taken to hospital from the office, died, the Interior Ministry press service in Tatarstan told Itar-Tass.

This Monday, Tatarstan's Interior Minister Asgat Safarov held an extraordinary meeting and suspended the head of the Dalny police station, Col. Sergei Yefremov, deputy head of the criminal investigation department Sr. Lieut. Almaz Vasilov, district police officer Lieut. Ilshat Garifullin, criminal investigation department officers Lieut. Ilnar Ibatullin, Sr. Lieut. Ramil Akhmetzyanov and Sr. Lieut Marat Sabirov, an interior ministry source said.

A number of senior officials of the Russian Interior Ministry's Kazan department were brought to disciplinary account and notified about their incomplete official compliance.

A commission of the republic's Interior Ministry worked for two days at Police Station 9 (Dalny) to investigate the circumstances of the death of detained Sergei Nazarov.

Deputy Interior Minister Damir Dinniulov heads the commission that consists of officers of the department for work with personnel and investigators of the Interior Ministry’s internal security department and the Russian Interior Ministry's Kazan department.

On March 9, Sergei Nazarov in a drunken state was taken to the Dalny police station of the Kazan police department. The man, who had six previous convictions for various crimes, was detained for disorderly conduct. The same evening, after he complained he had abdomen pains, an ambulance team was called for him. A doctor examined Nazarov and gave him an anesthetic injection. The detained man refused to be hospitalized, interior ministry officials said.

On March 10, Nazarov again complained he had abdomen pains. The ambulance team that was called there took the man with a diagnosis of enterorrhexis to the city's Hospital 18. After an operation, he died in the hospital.

A criminal case is opened over the incident on charges of "intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm resulting in death" and "power abuse with the use of arms or special equipment" (Articles 111 and 286 of the Russian Criminal Code).

The incident in Kazan is yet another case in a series of such tragedies. On January 22 this year, in St. Petersburg, after being beaten up in a police station, 15-year-old Nikita Leontyev died. He was detained on suspicion of robbery. A 24-year-old police lieutenant, who confessed he had beaten the boy, was arrested, and a deputy chief of the city's 75th police station also faces charges over the crime.

The incident was followed by large-scale checking of the local police work. As a result, the Russian president dismissed chief of the interior Ministry's main department for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region Mikhail Sukhodolsky. A number of senior police officials were brought to disciplinary account.

In February last year, in Tomsk, ex-policeman was sentenced to 12 years' strict-regime imprisonment, after journalist Konstantin Popov, who was taken to a medical sobering-up station, died after he was beaten up by the policeman. After the inquiry into the case, chief of the Tomsk regional police department Maj. Gen. Viktor Grechman was removed from office.