Mikhail Fediáyev, one of the owners of the mine in the Russian city of Belovo, in the Kemerovo region, where a fire was registered on November 25, has been arrested, as confirmed by the Russian Investigation Committee on Wednesday, informs TASS. Currently, the businessman remains in a temporary detention center.
In addition to Fediáyev – who heads the Siberian Business Union (SBD) business group, which operates the mine – the general director of SDS-Ugol, Gennadi Alekséyev, the company’s technical director, Anton Yakútov, and the chief engineer of the mine, Anatoli Lobánov, detailed the Committee’s spokesperson, Svetlana Petrenko.
Depending on their role in the tragedy, the suspects face charges of violation of industrial safety requirements in dangerous production facilities resulting in the death of two or more people through negligence, and abuse of authority in a commercial organization with result of serious consequences. “The investigation intends to request preventive detention as a precautionary measure in relation to all the detainees,” the spokeswoman added.
The coal dust fire occurred at 9:08 a.m. (local time) at a depth of 250 meters when 285 people were inside the deposit. In the tragedy, 51 people died, including five rescuers who went in search of the miners.
