KEMEROVO, October 15 (RIA Novosti) – Police in western Siberia are facing a criminal investigation for declaring dead a local man who turned out to be alive and well, Kemerovo Region prosecutors said Tuesday.
A 54-year-old local resident filed a complaint after he was denied a state pension on the grounds that he was dead, prosecutors said on their website.
The confusion was caused by the misidentification of another man who expired of tuberculosis on a Kemerovo street last month, the report said.
Police misidentified the dead man based on locals’ testimony, and handed over the body to a funeral service for burial after nobody claimed it, prosecutors said.
Now the officers who misidentified the dead man face a criminal case on negligence charges, punishable by up to three months in prison. An investigation has been launched to identify the man who was buried last month.
