Two policemen from Russia's southern Stavropol region reportedly abducted a comatose murder suspect from a hospital and tried to check him in as luggage on a flight, after which the man died.
The suspect, 36-year-old Sergei Kozhemyakin, was taken by the policemen from a hospital in the Kaluga region outside Moscow, leaving local doctors scratching their heads after finding their unconscious patient had disappeared, Life News reported Friday.
In the meantime, the policemen took Kozhemyakin to Moscow's Vnukovo Airport, where — despite being threatened with charges of hindering police operations — staff from UTair airline flatly refused to accept the man as baggage, the report said. It was not clear from the report when the incident had occurred.
The policemen then handcuffed their suspect to a bench while they took a nap, but woke up several hours later to find that Kozhemyakin was struggling to breathe.
Airport police called an ambulance, but his escorts refused to allow him to be hospitalized and he died, the report said.
Kozhemyakin was wanted on suspicion of ordering the murder of Arkady Georgiadi, a mayoral aide in the Stavropol region town of Mineralnye Vody who was shot at point-blank range by two assailants in 2008. The perpetrators were arrested soon after, though police had been searching for Kozhemyakin until he was checked into the hospital.
Mineralnye Vody police are investigating the incident, Life News reported.
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