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The Investigative Committee investigates death of Russian tourists in Egypt

The investigation has been considering exhumation of both bodies and appointment of a forensic commission

MOSCOW, March 27 (Itar-Tass) –The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into the death of a married couple from Russia who died while on vacation in Egypt.

Andrei and Marina Khmelyov, both aged 50, and their 24- year-old son Pavel Khmelyov took a flight to Hurghada on February 23 and were accommodated at Grand Hotel in Hurghada, SK spokesman Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass. On March 7 the 50- year-old Andrei Khmelyov suddenly died at the Hurghada hotel under unclear circumstances. On March 9 his wife passed away at the hotel under similar circumstances, the spokesman said.

Their son, the 24-old Pavel Khmelyov, who survived in Egypt, returned to St. Petersburg with symptoms pointing to serious food poisoning and was brought to Janelidze ambulance hospital in St.Petersburg where he remains to the present day.

According to the death certificate issued by the Red Sea Governor's office on March 9 both Andrei and Marina Khmelyov died of a " heart failure," Markin said. In fact, the conclusion given in both certificates contravenes facts established during an investigation, he stressed.

The investigation has been considering exhumation of both bodies and appointment of a forensic commission; an international warrant is being prepared authorising a number of investigative acts to be conducted on the territory of Egypt, Markin said. During an investigation into the death of the Russian tourists in Egypt all the circumstances connected with harm caused to the health of the Russian tourists will be found out, Markin said.

The SK department in the Leningrad region, where both victims lived, has opened a criminal case on charges of poison punished by the Russian Criminal Code for "rendering services not meeting security standards, which entails death of two persons through carelessness",

Markin explained that the Russian law envisages that foreign citizens who committed crimes beyond the territory of Russia are subject to criminal responsibility if the crime was aimed against a Russian citizen (Article 12 Part 3 of the Russian Criminal Code).

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