Russian Interior Ministry officers detain 'death groups' administrator in Moscow region
MOSCOW. Aug 29 (Interfax) - Policemen have detained an administrator of the so-called 'death groups' (closed-membership online communities maintaining web pages with posts on suicide) suspected of attempted inducing a Moscow region resident to commit suicide, Interior Ministry spokesperson Irina Volk told Interfax on Tuesday.
"Employees of the Russian Interior Ministry's 'K' Department aided by their colleagues from the agency's Main Criminal Investigations Directorate and police officers of the Moscow region and Chelyabinsk region and also by the staff of the Investigative Committee department for the Chelyabinsk region have detained an individual suspected of having attempted to induce a 21-year old Moscow region resident to commit suicide," Volk said.
The detainee was an administrator of an online community set up in January 2017 with the intent to push teenagers to commit suicide. He invented tasks for several dozens of his subscribers "aiming to exert certain psychological pressure on them", she said.
"The suspect was caught by Russian Interior Ministry officers. In his place of residence, police seized a computer, cell phones and SIM-cards that, according to tentative information, he used to contact his subscribers," she said.
The Russian Investigative Committee department for the Chelyabinsk region has opened a criminal case under the Criminal Code articles on "inducement to commit suicide" and "organization of activities aimed to induce to suicide". The court ordered the suspect remanded.
Meanwhile, police in Russia's Khabarovsk Territory detained a young girl who was allegedly an administrator of a similar "death group", she added.
"Unlike other such groups, in this community teenagers who had failed to accomplish their assignments received death threats and were told that their relatives may end up being killed," Volk said.
The suspected girl was put in custody under a court order. Investigators will carry on with special investigation activities aiming to determine more episodes of the suspects' criminal activity and identify their possible accomplices, the Interior Ministry said.