61-year-old Belgorod volunteer Alexander Demidenko, who helped Ukrainian refugees, was found in a pretrial detention cell with cut veins on his left forearm. The regional department of the Federal Penitentiary Service reported this to the Lantern publication.
“Employees from the institution’s medical service immediately arrived at the scene of the incident, and an ambulance was called. Resuscitation measures did not bring any results; the ambulance doctors confirmed the death of the accused. When examining the body, no signs of violent death were found,” the department says.
Demidenko died on April 5, but his death became known only three days later. Previously, the press service of the Federal Penitentiary Service had already reported that the volunteer, according to the security forces, committed suicide.
Belgorodets was in a pre-trial detention center on charges of illegal possession of explosives (Part 1 of Article 222.1 of the Criminal Code). The man himself insisted that he found her and did not have time to hand her over to the police.
Demidenko remained under arrest for six months — in mid-October, security forces kidnapped him at the Kolotilovka checkpoint. At that moment, the man was accompanying an elderly Ukrainian woman to the border. On October 24, it became known that the volunteer was arrested for ten days under a protocol for drinking alcohol in prohibited places (Part 2 of Article 20.20 of the Administrative Code). The “We Can Explain” project published a photo of Demidenko after his arrest — traces of beatings are visible on her.
At the end of October, a search was carried out at the volunteer’s home, to which he himself was brought. According to Demidenko’s wife Natalya Vishenkova, there were “many bruises” on her husband’s body at the time. In early November, the court sent Demidenko to a pre-trial detention center
After the Russian invasion began, Demidenko and his wife temporarily sheltered hundreds of Ukrainians. The Kolotilovka-Pokrovka border checkpoint located near their house, the only functioning border crossing from Russia to Ukraine, was often closed due to shelling.
Belgorod volunteer Alexander Demidenko, who helped hundreds of refugees from Ukraine, died in a pre-trial detention center. Main