MOSCOW, March 29 (RAPSI) – Public mourning events in the memory of victims of the blaze in Kemerovo’s Zimnyaya Vishnya (“Winter Cherry”) shopping mall showed the need of amending the law On Meetings, Rallies, Demonstrations, Marches and Pickets, Chairman of Russia’s Presidential Council for Human Rights Mikhail Fedotov said on Thursday.
Mourning meetings were spontaneously organized by citizens in many Russian cities after the tragedy to pay tribute to the memory of people killed by the fire. According to Fedotov, such gatherings do not fall within the requirements of the federal law on demonstrations and technically may be recognized as violation of the Russian Code of Administrative Offenses, the advisory body’s website reads.
The human rights council’ chairman believes that the law On Meetings, Rallies, Demonstrations, Marches and Pickets must stipulate a legal opportunity of spontaneous public events in cases of emergency.
The fire in Kemerovo’s mall occurred on March 25. Investigators reported that 64 persons including children were killed in the accident. 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.
About 100 investigators and criminal law experts of the Investigative Committee’s headquarters are currently working at the site of the tragedy.
Five persons were arrested and questioned, including a formal head of the mall’s owner company, a renter of a place where the fire allegedly began, a CEO and an employee in an organization maintaining the fire alarm and a guard who allegedly turned off the emergency notification system when he received a fire signal. Charges were brought against them. The defendants were put in detention until May 25.
Investigators noted that 70 persons were questioned as witnesses and allegedly numerous violations made during the mall construction were found. It was also revealed that fire exits were blocked.
According to the Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin, the two main versions of the tragedy are an electrical short circuit and burning. Technical, electrical and construction examinations would be conducted as part of the investigation, he said during the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
