MOSCOW, April 13 (RIA Novosti) – The Dutch Justice Ministry has acknowledged that agencies dealing with immigration issues “acted carelessly” in the treatment of a Russian opposition activist who committed suicide after being refused political asylum in the Netherlands, the DutchNews reported.
Alexander Dolmatov, an activist with the unregistered Other Russia opposition party whom the Russian authorities wanted to question in connection with a violent opposition rally in Moscow last May, killed himself in a Rotterdam deportation center on January 17. Russia has demanded a thorough investigation of his death.
“Organizations, procedures and systems throughout the chain for dealing with asylum applications had failed, as had those supporting him with legal and medical help,” the DutchNews portal cited a report by the by the Inspectorate for Safety and Justice published on Friday.
The report said Dolmatov should not have been held in detention because he was appealing against having his claim for asylum rejected. There were also some discrepancies in the paperwork filed in Dolmatov asylum case.
The report, however, stopped short from blaming anyone in particular, saying “it is impossible to say if Dolmatov would have survived if he had been treated differently.”
According to a statement on the Dutch government website, State Secretary for Security and Justice Fred Teeven “has immediately taken a large number of measures in order to reinforce Alien Affairs and to prevent such an incident from happening again.”
Teeven also expressed his sympathies to Dolmatov’s mother and stressed that “any damages due to Dolmatov's passing will be paid to the next of kin,” the statement said.
