Russian court puts in custody 3 people suspected of responsibility for deadly dam collapse

A court in Russia's Siberian Krasnoyarsk Region ruled Monday that three individuals suspected of violating mining safety practices, which caused the death of 15 people in a dam collapse, be put into custody, the Russian Investigative Committee said.

On Saturday, a dam collapsed on the territory of a gold mine near the village of Shchetinkino in the Kuraginsky district, causing a flood and the collapse of the other four dams, in which 15 people died and five were reported as missing, the statement said.

On the same day, investigators searched the office of the Sisim gold mining cooperative, seizing various documents.

They also questioned the head of the site, who admitted guilt in his role in the dam collapse and expressed a desire to conclude a pre-trial agreement with the investigation, the committee said.

The general director and the mining foreman of the enterprise did not admit any guilt, it said.

The investigators discovered the five collapsed dams had been built illegally without any permits in order to divert groundwater at the gold mining site.

As part of the criminal investigation, about 80 witnesses have been questioned and more than a dozen inspections of the scene have been carried out. The criminal investigation is ongoing, the statement said.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)