Sverdlovsk Region’s Public Prosecutor Yu. A. Ponomarev is now personally monitoring the situation in Sagra, a village in the vicinity of Verknyaya Pyshma, the spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office reports.

A large-scale ethnic disturbance occurred in the village next to Yekaterinburg on July 1, 2011. One twenty-eight-year-old Yekaterinburg resident was killed. About thirty people, most of them of Azerbaijan origin, took part in the clash. They were armed with knives, sticks, chains and firearms. The conflict was caused by serious difficulties between the villagers and a gypsy family of drug dealers.

The region’s prosecutor required that the investigative authorities identify all the circumstances of the incident. The investigation of the criminal lawsuit (with charges based on Article 105 (part 1) of the Russian Federation Criminal Code on murder) is now under the prosecutor’s special control.

Following Ponomarev’s request, the authorities are now looking into the legitimacy and promptness of the actions taken by the local police officers. In case their actions are found unlawful, measures will be taken, with possible criminal prosecution of the officials who failed to take sufficient measures to prevent the conflict.

Deputy Prosecutor D. Chulichkov and Sverdlovsk Region’s human rights official T. Merzlyakova went to meet the villagers of Sagra yesterday.