Suspicious Death of a Romani Woman in a Russian Police Station

10 July 2002

On May 27, 2002, the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG), an ERRC partner in monitoring Roma rights in Russia, received information that on May 24, 2002, at approximately 4:00 AM, Ms Fatima Aleksandrovich, a23-year-old Romani woman, died from a serious head trauma in the hospital. According to ERRC/MHG field research findings, on May 20, 2002, at approximately 8:30 AM, Ms Aleksandrovich had been taken to a police station in the city of Pskov in northwestern Russia on suspicion of having committed larceny. Allegedly, Mr Ravshan Mamedov, a police officer, had witnessed Ms. Aleksandrovich about to steal a purse from a female undercover officer of the Department of Visas and Passports on a bus in Pskov.When approached by the police officer, Ms Aleksandrovich reportedly introduced herself out of fear as Ilona Kozlovskaya, born in 1990. Ms Alexsandrovich was then taken into police custody. At approximately 4:00 PM the same day, the police informed Mr Klein Alexandr, Ms Aleksandrovich's husband, that his wife had attempted to commit suicide by jumping out of a third floor window at the police station and that she was in a deep coma in the hospital.

The ERRC/MHG reported that the doctor who examined the body of Ms Aleksandrovich and certified her death reportedly expressed doubts that Ms Aleksandrovich had committed suicide. Ms Aleksandrovich had numerous bruises on her arms, her inner thighs and her neck. According to Mr Molchanov,a Romani lawyer involved in the initial investigation of Ms Aleksandrovich's death, the bruises on Ms Aleksandrovich's body did not seem to fit the injury pattern of a fall victim.

The ERRC/MHG found that the family of Ms Aleksandrovich does not believe that she jumped out of the third floor window of her own free will. On May 25, 2002, the Pskov Prosecutor's Office began an investigation into the case.

(ERRC, Moscow Helsinki Group)