Legislation enforcement within the Transbaikal area in Russia have been accused of driving a neighborhood martial arts champion to suicide.
Oleg Sorokanyuk’s physique was discovered on Nov. 10. at a neighborhood youngsters’s martial arts college that he based earlier this yr. The 32-year-old’s dying was dominated as a possible suicide, although reviews have since emerged shedding mild on the circumstances main as much as the athlete’s dying.
In accordance with native Transbaikal new outlet Chita,ru, which first broke the story on Sorokanyuk’s passing, the athlete’s dying came about shortly after he was interrogated by native regulation enforcement over allegations that certainly one of his trainers had bodily assaulted a number of youngsters throughout a summer time camp at his facility.
The reviews had been later confirmed by Transbaikal Minister of Sports activities Andrey Seredkin, who clarified that Sorokanyuk was merely a witness within the case.
“We talked with him, and Oleg stated that the case didn’t concern him,” Seredkin stated. “He was solely there as a witness. In my view, there are extra questions for one more man, whose identify is Andrei.”
In October 2022, a felony investigation was launched into Andrei Yemtsov, a 24-year-old former pupil of Sorokanyuk who was later employed as a coach for the youngsters’s summer time martial arts camp. Yemtsov was accused of assaulting two younger youngsters along with his first, in addition to a rolling pin.
Whereas Sorokanyuk, who additionally served because the president of the Federation of Pankration and MMA in Transbaikalia, was not named as an assailant, he was criticized by the authorities for hiring a coach with no prior expertise educating martial arts or youngsters.
“The junior coach who didn’t have a pedagogical training, having taken on the features of an educator, systematically beat two younger boys,” the Trans-Baikal Territory Prosecutor’s Workplace stated in an announcement. “Staff of the sports activities college, by verbal settlement, with out drawing up an employment contract, allowed outsiders who wouldn’t have the abilities to work with youngsters to work with youngsters.”
Elena Khzanyan, the journalist who first broke the story for Chita,ru and whose personal little one skilled beneath Sorokanyuk, accused native authorities of driving the athlete to suicide by means of their ongoing investigation—a view that was reiterated by Sorokanyuk’s household.
“He didn’t have the energy to struggle towards the system,” Khzanyan stated on the VKontakte social community. “I actually need all caring individuals who know Oleg to not ignore this.”
Each the Ministry of Inside Affairs for Transbaikalia and the native prosecutor’s workplace refused to remark on the state of affairs or affirm whether or not an investigation will probably be performed into the actions of the workers concerned in assessing the felony case.
Sorokanyuk was a three-time Russian and European champion in common karate, in addition to an avid practitioner of sambo, taekwondo, kickboxing and judo. He leaves behind a spouse and a younger daughter.