Kemerovo court arrests Listvyazhnaya mine owner Fedyayev

KEMEROVO. Dec 15 (Interfax) - The Central District Court of Kemerovo has ordered the arrest of Listvyazhnaya's principal owner and chairman of the board of directors at SDS-Ugol, Mikhail Fedyayev, in a case over a deadly accident in the coal mine, regional prosecutors said on Wednesday.

At the request of investigators backed by prosecutors, Fedyayev has been remanded in custody until February 14, 2022.

He has been charged with abuse of office in a commercial entity with grave consequences. Fedyayev has pleaded not guilty.

The incident in the Listvyazhnaya mine at Belovo municipality in the Kemerovo region occurred in the morning of November 25; 51 people, including five mountain rescue workers, were killed. On December 13, the last body was retrieved from the mine. A methane explosion has been blamed for the incident.

In the course of investigation into deaths in the Listvyazhnaya mine, Listvyazhnaya top managers and two officers of the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological and Nuclear Supervision (Rostekhnadzor) have been detained and charged with a breach of industrial safety rules for hazardous industrial facilities causing two deaths or more by negligence, as well as with neglect of duty causing two deaths or more.

The detention of Fedyayev, SDS-Ugol General Director Gennady Alexeyev, the company's chief technical officer Anton Yakutov, and LLC Listvyazhnaya Mine chief engineer Anatoly Lobanov was reported earlier on Wednesday.

Depending on their role, the detainees have been charged with a violation of industrial safety rules for hazardous industrial facilities causing two deaths or more by negligence and abuse of office in a commercial entity with grave consequences.

The Listvyazhnaya mine is part of the SDS-Ugol company, in which 50% belongs to SDS Holding President Mikhail Fedyayev, 25% to Vladimir Gridin, and 25% to Andrei Gridin.