[Translation prepared by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

Three people were arrested after the death of workers at the Aktyubinsk chromium compounds plant, 1 June 2020

Three workers of the Aktobe Chromium Compounds Plant were taken into custody after an accident at the enterprise, which resulted in the death of four people...

As reported by the Aktobe Region Police Department, the site foreman, the head of the department and the head of workshop No. 4 were arrested. In addition, all safety documentation, logs for issuing work orders, as well as information about job descriptions were confiscated.

...[F]our workers of the fourth workshop died on the territory of the gas station. While working to clean a 50-cubic-meter tank, which previously contained the chemical "Hydroxyl", the factory workers noticed damage to the mechanism, went down into the vat, but received chemical burns and poisoning. The men died on the spot.

Two more workers are in the Aktobe emergency hospital. Doctors assess their condition as serious.

“The plant provides financial assistance in organizing the funerals of those killed. All payments due will also be made. In addition, we are allocating 200 thousand tenge ($486) for the treatment of the victims who are now taken to the hospital,” said Alexey Khimich, director of the ACCP.

Based on this fact, the Aktobe regional police department opened a criminal case under part four of Art. 156 of the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan (“Violation of labor safety rules resulting in the death of two or more persons through negligence”)...