Spain will extradite the commercial director of a nightclub in the Urals city of Perm where over 150 people died in a fire last December, Russian investigators said on Monday.
The deadly fire, the worst in modern Russia's history, swept through the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, 1,400 kilometers east of Moscow, on December 5, 2009, when an indoor firework display malfunctioned.
Konstanin Mrykhin was arrested in Spain in late August. He is wanted in Russia on involuntary manslaughter charges.
Mrykhin was the organizer of the firework show, which was in violation of fire regulations. He is believed to have fled Russia immediately after the blaze and was detained at his house in Barcelona.
Charges were brought against eight other people. The club's co-owner Anatoly Zak, executive director Svetlana Yefremova and art director Oleg Fetkulov were also charged with manslaughter.
The Perm region's fire watchdog chief Vladimir Mukhutdinov was accused of abuse of office, while inspectors Dmitry Roslyakov and Natalia Prokopyeva face charges of negligence.
Firework suppliers Igor and Sergei Derbenev were charged with breaching fire safety rules.
Russia has an extremely poor fire safety record. Around 15,000 people die in fires across the country annually. In the United States, with more than twice the population, the figure is around 3,400 deaths a year.
MOSCOW, September 20 (RIA Novosti)
