MOSCOW, August 12 (RIA Novosti) – Two policemen in eastern Siberia will be fired over a snooze break that allowed three drug users to escape from detention, local police said Monday.
The three men, who were serving short terms for drug use, managed to force open their cell door through the unlocked food slot, Zabaikalsky Region prosecutors said in a statement on their website.
But they only made it out of the building because the officers were napping, not monitoring the feed from CCTV cameras by the cell door, the prosecutors’ statement said.
Two of the escapees were found, hiding on the riverbank, seven hours after making their break for freedom, police and prosecutors said. The third man was found later in the day in a vegetable garden in a nearby village, local police said.
Their bid for freedom may well backfire, because in Russia absconding from detention carries a sentence of up to four years, compared to their original sentences for drug use, which was between six and 13 days.
The napping officers now face disciplinary proceedings that will end with them being fired, and their superiors may also lose the jobs over the incident, police said.
