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Concvict swaps names with his prison inmate to run away

The prison guards, who confused the man with his fellow inmate, took the criminal to a court building in Moscow, where he was released

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, July 11 (Itar-Tass) --The Federal Service for Execution of Sentences (FSIN) has guaranteed an award worth 100,000 roubles for information about the whereabouts of a runaway convict, citizen of Uzbekistan Farrukh Toshmatov, who escaped from a detention center in Moscow on April 15.

During a routine inspection of prison cells on April 15 it was found out that a different person of Uzbek descent was staying in the cell instead of Toshmatov. The prison guards, who confused Toshmatov with his fellow inmate, took the criminal to a court building in Moscow, where Toshmatov was released under the name of his inmate in the courtroom.

Toshmatov is on the federal Wanted list.

Earlier, he had been implicated by agents of the Federal Service for Control of Drugs and Psychotropic Substances in trafficking more than a kilogram of heroin.

Recently police found out that the criminal had been staying on the territory of Moscow or the Moscow region, still selling drugs, and that he presumably used teenagers for the circulation of drugs.

Chairman of the FSIN Board Anatoly Tikhomirov said at a meeting of the Board that two inmates had escaped from the detention centers in Moscow this year.

The second incident took place on May 7 when an inmate escaped from Matrosskaya Tishina detention center after he had dismantled a section of a brick wall of the prison. However, shortly after the runaway convict was detained at a railway station in Moscow.

The two incidents were followed by a serious investigation at the FSIN structures, and strict measures were taken against those responsible, Tikhomirov said.

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