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Roscosmos senior manager dies of stab wound to neck while under arrest — source

The cellmates claim they had not seen or heard anything
Vladimir Yevdokimov (right) Dmitry Serebryakov/TASS
Vladimir Yevdokimov (right)
© Dmitry Serebryakov/TASS

MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/. Executive director of the state corporation Roscosmos for quality and reliability control, Vladimir Yevdokimov, died of a deep stab wound to the neck and bleeding, a source in the law enforcement told TASS.

"According to preliminary forensic examination, the death was due to a stab wound to the neck, which caused heavy bleeding. The two other stab wounds to the chest were minor and not deep. They were not lethal," the source said.

Earlier, the source said Yevdokimov was killed at about four o’clock in the morning last Saturday. A warden found the body in the toilet while inspecting the cell. By that moment Yevdokimov had been dead for some time. The cellmates claim they had not seen or heard anything. There were eleven men alongside Yevdokimov in the cell.

An investigation is in progress.

"The previous records and backgrounds of his cellmates are being studied. The investigators are questioning them, the detention center’s personnel and other arrested who had contacts with Yevdokimov during strolls in the prison yard," law enforcement sources said.

All of Yevdokimov’s former cellmates have not been transferred to other cells. Confrontations may be held.

Yevdokimov’s body bearing three stab wounds - two in the heart area and one to the neck - was found in a Moscow detention center cell on March 18. Yevdokimov was remanded in custody last year. He was charged with the theft of MiG aircraft building corporation’s assets 200 million rubles ($3.3 million) worth. A court in Moscow had prolonged the arrest of Yevdokimov and his suspected accomplice Aleksandr Zolin (former head of the closed joint stock company Scientific-Technical Center) till April 30. Both men pled innocent.