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Last defendant in Perm nightclub fire case signs plea bargain agreement

The defendant has fully admitted his guilt
Photo  ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

PERM, April 11 (Itar-Tass) — Konstantin Mrykhin, the last defendant in the case over the fire at the Khromaya Loshad /Lame Horse/ nightclub in Perm in 2009, in which more than 150 people died, will be tried under special procedure, as he has signed a plea bargain agreement, an official at Perm's Lenin district court told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

The preliminary hearing is due to begin on April 18. "The defendant has fully admitted his guilt," the official said.

Special procedure implies that the court will skip the inquest and will not question witnesses in reviewing the case. The defendant cannot be sentenced to more than two-third of the maximum sentence envisioned by a Criminal Code article.

The investigation into Mrykhin's case finished in early April. He was charged under Article 238, Part 3 /"provision of services which do not meet the requirements for the safety of life and health of consumers, resulting in serious harm to health and death of two or more persons by negligence."/

Mrykhin and his wife were in the cafe when the fire broke out, and he managed to escape. Although his wife was brought to a Perm hospital in serious condition, and later flown to St Petersburg for further treatment, Mrykhin left Russia on December 17, 2009 in order to escape the investigators. He was put on the federal wanted list in March 2010, and in May, Interpol issued a wanted notice for him.

He was detained in Barcelona in August 2010 and extradited to Russia in June 2011.

Overnight from December 5 to December 6, 156 people died in the fire that broke out at the nightclub, and another 64 were seriously injured. Nine victims suffered medium gravity harm to health, and another seven suffered light harm to health.

Other defendants are: Anatoly Zak, a de-facto co-owner of the nightclub, unofficial executive director Svetlana Yefremova and art director Oleg Fetkulov, father and son Igor and Sergei Derbenev, who arranged fireworks, and former head of the State Fire Safety Inspectorate for the Perm Territory Vladimir Mukhutdinov. Zak was recently certified as disabled person.

The authorities recognized 404 people to be the victims within the criminal case, Investigative Committee /SK/ spokesman Vladimir Markin said earlier.

According to the SK, the fire broke out during the show with the so-called "cold fireworks." At first, foam plastic that lined the ceiling caught fire. The investigators also blamed the improper performance of duties by fire inspectorate personnel, who had failed to expose various violations of the fire safety regulations at the cafe.