Taken to police and died in intensive care unit

Police say the detained man fell on the floor in the toilet.

A young man was detained by police for “disorderly conduct” in Salihorsk on July 3. He was placed in a temporary detention facility. On July 6, he was taken to a intensive care unit with a head injury. He died without regaining consciousness on August 4, Saligorsk.org website reports.

This is the only precise information in this story. The Investigation Committee is carrying out an inquiry. A criminal case has not been initiated. Investigators decline to give comments on this stage. A police department in Salihorsk confirmed the information about the incident, but refused to say more details.

It was a difficult task to get comments from doctors. Each hospital department advised to contact another department. Finally, the chief of the intensive case unit agreed to give information only on request of the Investigation Committee.

Relatives of the dead man say they received a telephone call from the hospital on the morning of July 6. They were told he was in a coma. They came to the hospital and learned he had undergone trepanation.

Police officers say the detainee felt sick, fell on the floor in the toilet and hit his head. Relatives say it was written in the patient record that hte young man had an epileptic seizure, which he had never had before.

The detainee is reported to have required medical aid after receiving injuries and have been taken to hospital. Doctors, however, found him “fit” to serve his term of punishment. Some hours later he was taken unconscious to the admission unit.

A position of the officers of Salihorsk police department surprises after two weeks since the detainee died of injuries he received in the detention facility. They just ignore the incident.

Saligorsk.org website says there's no a separate toilet in the detention facility. It is a part of the cell equipped with CCTV cameras. The footage is kept for 30 days. If the man felt sick and fell, the footage can prove it. But the information is hushed up. The footage is likely to be deleted soon.

The stance of the investigative and law-enforcement agencies casts a shadow on police officers. Suppression of the incident resulting in human death allows to suspect that either the man was beaten or didn't receive proper medical care.