61-year-old volunteer Alexander Demidenko, who helped Ukrainian refugees, died in the Belgorod pre-trial detention center, his acquaintances reported this to the publications “That’s So” and “Ashes”. Later, information about Demidenko’s death was confirmed to Mediazona by his son.
According to “That’s So,” Demidenko died on April 5. At the same time, the volunteer’s lawyer informed his wife and son about this only three days later.
Demidenko was in a pre-trial detention center on charges of illegal possession of explosives (Part 1 of Article 222.1 of the Criminal Code).
In mid-October, volunteers said that their comrade Alexander Demidenko disappeared after he tried to escort an elderly woman with cancer to a Ukrainian checkpoint. Then the volunteer’s wife, Natalya Vishenkova, wrote a statement about her husband’s disappearance.
A week later, it became known that Demidenko was arrested for ten days under a protocol for drinking alcohol in prohibited places (Part 2 of Article 20.20 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). “We Can Explain” published a photo of Demidenko after his arrest — traces of beatings are visible on her.
On October 20, the couple’s home was searched, to which the volunteer himself was brought. According to Vishenkova, there were “many bruises” on her husband’s body. On November 1, the Shebekinsky District Court sent Demidenko to a pre-trial detention center. According to investigators, he “kept explosive devices at his home.” The volunteer himself insisted that he found the explosives and did not have time to hand them over to the police.
As the BBC Russian Service wrote, Demidenko lives in a private house in the Belgorod region. For more than a year, he helped refugees from Ukraine get to the Kolotilovka-Pokrovka checkpoint, the only functioning border crossing from Russia to Ukraine.
Since May last year, Demidenko said, up to 900 people who needed somewhere to spend the night stayed at his house — the border checkpoint was often closed due to shelling.