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Russian citizen kept in US federal custody dies of unidentified illness

Igor Zyazin, 46, died on Sunday night while paramedics were transporting him from the Otay detention facility to hospital. Prior to that prison officers and medics had found him unresponsive

© EPA/NABIL MOUNZER, file

NEW YORK, May 4. /TASS/. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday confirmed the reports on the death of a Russian man who was detained at on the U.S.-Mexican border.

ICE revealed the information in an official statement.

Igor Zyazin, 46, died on Sunday night while paramedics were transporting him from the Otay detention facility in San Diego to hospital. Prior to that prison officers and medics had found him unresponsive.

Zyazin was handed to ICE and taken to custody on April 24 after an attempt to get to the U.S. via the San Ysidro border crossing station where he showed his Russian passport to the officials who established later the fact of his previous deportation from the U.S. in 2009.

While in custody, he awaited an interview with an official from the Citizenship and Immigration Services in order to map out further steps in this case.

ICE also said Zyazin scanning through databanks showed he had no sentences for criminal offenses in the U.S.

Diplomats at the Russian Consulate General in San Francisco told TASS they were verifying the information.

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