Mikhail Arshynski: «The compensation for father's death looks ridiculous»

Mahiliou journalist is outraged by the decision of the Leninski district court of Mahiliou on the amount of compensation for the death of his father in an accident, which occurred in February 2010.

- Michael, what is the sum of the compensation appointed by the court appointed?

- The Court has appointed 30 million rubles in moral damages for the death of my father. However, I consider the sum as offensive, to put it mild. In my case I lost a close relative, and the amount of compensation is too low. In my initial lawsuit I demanded from the communal unitarian enterprise
“Bureau for Usage of Housing Resources” (ZhREU) of Mahiliou 500 million rubles, but the size of the moral compensation was reduced by almost 20 times.

- Have the employees of the communal service recognized their guilt in court?

- The investigating authorities concluded that the fence of the second porch collapsed because of the large mass of snow on it. This fact wasn't denied by the defendant's representative, who explained that removing snow from the roof of this building wasa responsibility of the housing department No. 1 (ZhEU 1). Also, no estimation of the strength of the structure was made. Master Hudzimchyk ordered the workers to build the construction being guided by her experience rather than technical parameters.

According to the expert opinion, the cause of the collapse of the wooden construction was insufficient bearing capacity. In court, the employees of the communal service recognized their guilty only partially, and the person who was to be punished wasn't determined.

- So, no one was punished for this accident?

- I know that the director of “ZhREU” of the Leninski district Osintsau was reprimanded, two other officials were fined. However, no one has been punished within the criminal case concerning the death of my father.

- Is the investigation going on at the moment?

- For five years, the investigators haven't been able to find the culprit in this incident. The investigative actions have repeatedly been suspended and the case was even closed, but now I am appealing the decision to close the criminal case at the investigative committee and hope that it will be reopened. I expect that the investigation will find and punish those guilty of the death of my father.

- Will you appeal against the decision of the district court at the court of appeal?

- Today, November 5, I file an appeal to the Mahiliou Regional Court against the verdict of Judge Yurchanka of the Leninski District Court of Mahiliou to appoint the compensation of 30 mln rubles for the death of my father. I believe that the compensation should me much higher, because the sums of compensation were about 1 billion rubles in analogical cases in Homel and Horki concerning deathsof people as a result of negligence.

Let us remind that Vadzim Arshynski died in an accident on February 18. 2010. A wooden fence at the entrance of his house, put by ZhREU for the period of construction works, fell on him. As a result, Vadzim received lethal injuries and died on the way to hospital.

Mr. Arshynski worked as a cameraman at the TV channel “BelSat” since its foundation.