Nemiga Stampede Case Halted :: Charter'97 :: News

Legal action against the two police officers, implicated in the Nemiga stampede in Minsk on May 30, 1999, was stopped by the Central court of Minsk. Judge Petr Kirkovsky closed the case because its legal term had expired by then. Deputy police head for public security Viktor Rusak and head of the mass events Mikhail Kondratin were charged with criminal negligence, which resulted in the bloody stampede in the Nemiga underpass, claiming 53 people dead and over 200 severely injured.

Investigation proceedings into the tragedy, which occurred at the Nemiga tube station were groundlessly made too long, which finally led to the termination of court considerations. Such an opinion was voiced in an interview to BelaPAN by the human rights defender Oleg Volchek, a legal representative of the prominent sculptor Mikhail Inkov, whose daughter perished at Nemiga.

Having closely studied the court ruling, Volchek concluded that it was carried out in full conformity with the new Criminal code. Representatives of the victims, in his opinion, have no legal basis to petition the prosecutor over protesting against the judge’s decision. As noted by the human rights defender, it is necessary to return to the civil case, which had been instituted shortly after the tragedy but was halted after the criminal case’s opening. Volchek deems that it will be tougher to prove the defendants’ guilt in the civil process, for among them there are the Minsk city hall and the Minsk police department.