MOSCOW, July 13Entrepreneur Igor Kotelnikov, who was involved in the case of former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, died in the capital's pre-trial detention center-4 «Bear» due to heart problems in a punishment cell, said member of the Presidential Human Rights Council Eva Merkacheva.
«Placement in a punishment cell should be a last resort. It is difficult to imagine that Igor Kotelnikov was a supporter of the criminal subculture. <…> He is an entrepreneur, he had no criminal experience. <…> His heart stopped in such heat. We, of course , we are still waiting for the results of the examination,” she said.
Merkacheva noted that in hot weather it is possible to send someone to a punishment cell only in extreme cases.
«It's hot, stuffy. It's practically impossible to stay in the punishment cells. The prisoners are suffering there. <…> In general, the entire fifth building (SIZO-4. — Ed.) is known for the fact that it has a huge number of punishment cells — more than 30, which is the largest number in all the Moscow detention centers. <…> The prisoners there always complained about the conditions. <…> There have already been deaths there,» she added.
Moscow Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Potyaeva, for her part, said that on Monday, July 15, she would make all inquiries and go to a meeting with the management of the detention center to find out about the situation. According to her, she has not received any complaints from Kotelnikov.
Ivanov, who oversaw the work of the military construction complex at the Ministry of Defense, was detained at the end of April. He is accused of bribery on an especially large scale — according to his lawyer Murad Musayev, we are talking about a sum of about a billion rubles.