In Zavodskoy district The Kemerovo court announced a verdict for Andrei Smirnov, the organizer and owner of an illegal nursing home, where 23 people burned to death in December 2022.
The man received five years in a general regime colony, and was also ordered to pay compensation to the victims from 50 to 100 thousand rubles. The correspondent learned about this newspapers “Top Secret” from the courtroom.
“Andrei Olegovich Smirnov was found guilty of committing a crime under Part 3 of Article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country) and sentenced to imprisonment for a term of five years,” the judge said.
It was established that since 2019, the pastor of the Evangelical Christian Church and, part-time, businessman Smirnov, rented a private residential building in Kemerovo for the Good Deed shelter. The man set up a store selling compound feed in the building and “organized accommodation in the house for people with alcohol and drug addiction and those left without family care for a fee or free of charge.” As noted, the entrepreneur knew that fire safety requirements were not met in the house, but still provided services for the elderly and people with limited mobility for money. It is worth noting that even representatives of the State Fire Inspectorate reported violations to the businessman. He did not enter into any contracts with clients, nor with employees of the nursing home.
The Prosecutor General’s Office stated that the fire occurred due to an electrical short circuit. At this time, there were 28 guests in the room, 23 of whom eventually died. Soon after the tragedy, Andrei was detained. The pastor’s lawyer, as well as Smirnov himself, stated that all regulatory and inspection bodies knew about the work of “Good Deed.” According to them, people were brought to the shelter by police and hospital employees.
The court is also considering a case of negligence by state fire inspector Roman Plet. According to the investigation, he discovered violations of fire safety requirements in the shelter in February last year, but did not hold its owners accountable, and also did not take measures to ban the activities of the nursing home.
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