Russian Foreign Ministry demands thorough inquiry into death of Russian man Zyazin in U.S. custody
MOSCOW. May 4 (Interfax) - The Russian Foreign Ministry has expressed most serious concerns over the reports from the United States about the death of a Russian citizen, Igor Zyazin, at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement temporary detention center in San Diego, California.
"We demand that U.S. authorities inform the Russian side as promptly as possible about all circumstances surrounding this tragic incident, conduct a thorough inquiry into the death of the Russian citizen and inform the Russian side in full about the results of the investigation," said Kostantin Dolgov, the foreign ministry's commissioner for human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
Zyazin was detained on April 24 this year while attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexican border legally.
The ministry has taken the matter under control.
"This is already a sixth death at a temporary detention center of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2016, which confirms the extremely unfavorable - from the viewpoint of compliance with the human rights standards - situation at U.S. penitentiary institutions," Dolgov said in a commentary.
Under Article 40 clause one of the Russian-U.S. consular convention of June 1, 1964, the U.S. authorities had an obligation to inform Russia immediately about having arrested or otherwise detained a Russian citizen on its territory, Dolgov recalled.
"Our understanding is that they failed to do so," Dolgov said.
The ABC television channel said earlier that the cause of the death of the Russian man Igor Zyazin, who died at a temporary detention center in San Diego, California, remains unestablished.
According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the 46-year-old Russian was taken into custody on April 24. At the checkpoint in San Isidro, on the border with Mexico, he produced his Russian passport. It transpired that Zyazin was deported in 2009 but had no criminal record in the U.S., according to the report.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that the Russian man had been waiting to meet with citizenship and immigration officials to determine a sequence of proceedings in his case.
According to the report, Zyazin is the sixth inmate to have died at temporary detention centers since last October.