Suspects in the criminal case regarding the bus of rescue workers collapsing into the ground have been detained. They will remain in custody until their court hearing.
According to Ratel.kz, the detention may be linked to plans to conclude the investigation by the end of the month.
To recall, on 4 January, near the Maikain mine shaft, a bus carrying four mine rescue workers plunged into a 150-metre-deep stope cavity. News of two bodies being found emerged later. The bodies of rescuer Aidos Shaimerden and driver Ayip Tleubergenov were only discovered in the summer.
In April, a commission comprising the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Akimat of Pavlodar Region, the state labour inspector, JSC Maikainzoloto, and LLP «Republican Central Headquarters of Professional Paramilitary Emergency Rescue Services» conducted an investigation into the accident, the results of which established the employer's one hundred percent liability.
«Those found responsible for the tragedy are the General Director of the JSC Botin, his First Deputy Bashirov and Deputy Tereshkov, the Director of the Maikain Underground Mine (MUM) Shuvalov, the Deputy Director of MUM Nazyrov, the Chief Engineer of MUM Қayıpkanuly and the Chief Surveyor of MUM Tuleubekov», the media report.
Meanwhile, it has become known that in March, JSC «Maikainzoloto» filed a lawsuit against the RSU «Committee for Labour and Social Protection of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population» and the SU «Committee for Industrial Safety of the Ministry of Emergency Situations», demanding that the bus driver, rather than them, be found at fault.
«With due diligence, the driver could have stopped before the impending danger, which, given the nature of their work involving rescue operations at a hazardous industrial facility, is to be expected. Consequently, there is no direct causal link between the accident and the death of the rescuers», the statement read.
After the case was heard in the specialised inter-district administrative court of Astana, the company's management lost the lawsuit.