Accident or arson: UK finds out the causes of a fire in a police car with detained teenagers in Irkutsk

In recent days, a scandal occurred in Irkutsk, where a patrol vehicle caught fire, in which there were two detained teenagers 16 and 17 years old. The versions of the victims and their parents, on the one hand, and the police, on the other, are fundamentally different. The situation may become clearer shortly when the Investigative Committee completes its audit.

"Struck a lighter"

The incident itself occurred on September 18th. According to teenagers whose parents turned to Irkutsk human rights activist Svyatoslav Khromenkov for legal assistance, that day the guys went to a store in the Oktyabrsky district of Irkutsk to exchange money.

They claim that instead, the saleswoman unexpectedly locked the exits from the premises, demanding to pay for an acquaintance of young people who had taken something at the store three days earlier and hadn’t paid. The teenagers claim that they gave the money for a friend, but even after that they were not allowed to leave the store. Soon security arrived at the store, and then the police.

According to the detainees, the police, having decided not to understand the place, put the guys without drawing up any protocols in the detainee compartment of the official UAZ and drove them to the department.

“It was completely dark in the prison cell. We were locked together, stayed like this for about three minutes. My friend found a lighter under the bench, and when my phone fell, he struck a lighter, everything flared up. Frightened, I try to extinguish, everything splashes on me, I start to burn. We gouge (at the door. - RT ), the employees begin to laugh, take us on camera - apparently something was funny. Then we were handcuffed to a pillar, it was very painful. Then they put us first in the guard car, and then - in the PPS car. Then the ambulance arrived, they gave me an injection and took me to the hospital, ”one of the victims said in an interview with Khromenkov’s human-rights project“ Refueling ”.

Relatives of the injured adolescents claim that, in addition to the lighter, there was a bottle of flammable liquid in the interior of the car, the fumes of which, possibly, led to a fire. According to relatives of the detainees, the fact of having a bottle in the cabin was later verbally confirmed by Interior Ministry officers during a conversation at the department.

“I think this is absolute negligence. It’s bad for a person, but they scoff at it, take pictures on cameras, then they show it to each other, laugh. That is, I come to the police department, everyone laughs and takes pictures with me, ”one of the young people added.

The teenagers said that during the interrogation in the department, the policemen of each of them individually persuaded each other to testify about the intentional arson. In addition, one of the guys was allegedly threatened with serious problems with his studies if he continued to stick to his version of events.

The families of both detainees shortly after the incident filed an application with the Investigative Committee, and also complained to the regional children's ombudsman Svetlana Semenova.

"Intent arson"

The media drew attention to the video published by human rights activists, after which the regional police officially reacted to the situation. They presented their own version of what happened.

“On the evening of September 18, employees of a trading establishment in the Oktyabrsky district of the regional center handed over two shop visitors who arrived inadequately and who, according to the applicants, might have been involved in the theft, arrived, the police said. - To clarify the circumstances of the incident and conduct the survey, they were placed in a company car. While in the car compartment, young people made a deliberate arson of the car. ”

The department noted that, thanks to the actions of the police, they managed to remove the teenagers from the car on time, and they also received first aid.

“According to the results of a medical examination, one of the burned persons was found intoxicated. Survey of the second participant in the incident is still in production by doctors. At present, an official inspection is being carried out on this fact by the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the Irkutsk Region, ”the report said.

In response to a RT question, how did the police determine that the teenagers deliberately set fire to the car, given the lack of cameras in the detainee compartment and the fact that the young people themselves denied this fact, German Struglin, an official representative of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Irkutsk Region, admitted that checking the data about it so far not finished.

“Yes, our version is that they did this not by chance, but intentionally. A causal relationship is due to the fact that someone deliberately struck a lighter, but for what purpose, it is too early to make final conclusions. The audit is not completed at the moment, ”he said.

At the same time, Struglin did not comment in more detail on the information on drug intoxication of one of the teenagers.

On Wednesday evening, the situation was first responded to in the regional department of the Investigative Committee of Russia. However, the agency does not claim that there was a deliberate arson.

“On September 18, 2019 in Irkutsk in the evening, two teenagers, being in a patrol car, set it on fire, having received burns of varying severity. According to this fact, the investigation department in the Oktyabrsky district of Irkutsk of the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee in the Irkutsk region is conducting a pre-investigation check, ”the report says.

The ministry also emphasizes that after the fire “the police officers immediately removed the adolescents from the detainee compartment and called the ambulance team.”

In addition, it is noted that the UK continues verification activities aimed at establishing all the circumstances of the incident.

A RT source in the region’s power structures added that the investigators have not yet decided on which article the actions of the incident participants can be qualified.

“Now the UK needs to understand whose version is closer to the truth, these teenagers or the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It’s not worth waiting for quick test results, ”the source said.

The source also confirmed that the examination showed the presence of prohibited substances in the body of one of the adolescents.

Svyatoslav Khromenkov, representing the interests of the victims, declined to comment on the circumstances of the case in an interview with RT, at least until the results of the preliminary investigation of the IC.