MOSCOW, August 3 (RAPSI) – The Kemerovo Regional Court has upheld extension of detention for the head of the Ministry of Emergencies’ regional directorate Grigory Terentyev as part of a case over tragic fire in Zimnyaya Vishnya (Winter Cherry) shopping mall that left 60 people dead, the court’s press service has told RAPSI.

Terentyev will stay jailed until September 25.

Terentyev and head of the Ministry of Emergencies’ department for Kemerovo Region Alexander Mamontov, depending on their alleged actions, are charged with criminal negligence and embezzlement. Hearing of Mamontov’s appeal against extended detention is set for August 9.

Earlier, Russia’s Investigative Committee reported that the defendants’ negligence was confirmed by the results of conducted examination.

Investigators believe that Mamontov and Terentyev have not organized the mall’s safety examination since 2017 despite knowing that one should have been completed before March 18. Moreover, from 2015 to 2018, Mamontov used his position to embezzle 1.8 million rubles ($29,200) from the Ministry and spent the money for benefit of other persons.

The blaze in the mall occurred on March 25. According to investigators, 60 people including dozens of children were killed by fire. Initially it was reported that 64 people died.

A criminal case has been launched over involuntary manslaughter, violation of fire safety regulations that left more than two persons dead and provisions of services that don’t meet safety requirements.

As of today, eleven defendants are detained. They are: Yulia Bogdanova, CEO of the Kemerovsky Confectionary Combine, a company owning the mall, Tanziliya Komkova, chief of the region’s State Construction Inspection, a formal head of the mall’s owner company Georgy Sobolev; the mall’s manager Nadezhda Suddenok; CEO of the company System Integrator that developed the fire safety system Igor Polozinenko; an employee of the company, who personally installed the fire alarm Alexander Nikitin, a guard who allegedly turned off the emergency notification system when he received a fire signal Sergey Antyushin and fire team commander Sergey Genin, chief of the ministry’s directorate for Kemerovo Grigory Terentyev and ex-director of the ministry’s department for Kemerovo Region Alexander Mamontov and the fire control service chief of the Federal Fire-Fighting Service’s regional department’s 1 team Andrey Bursin charged with negligence.