Arrests in Ecomedservice go on

A chief engineer in Ecomedservice medical centre has been detained.

The engineer was responsible for the service of a medical ventilator, journalists learnt on Monday from head of the Minsk department of the Investigation Committee Aliaksei Volkau.

He specified the pre-trial restrictions were not changed for five Ecomedservice's employees, who had been detained earlier, Interfax news agency reports.

Volkou didn't rule out the possibility that pre-trial restrictions might be changed for some of the detainees by evening.

The Investigation Committee's representative noted investigators didn't yet receive final results of the post-mortem examination to find out the cause of death of a female patient who had undergone a surgery in Ecomedservice centre.

He said the ventilator, which was produced in 2006 by a Belarusian manufacturer, “had not had any safety checks from 2007 to April 1, 2013”. Volkau added: “The investigation figured out that the medical centre's engineers do not have enough skills to provide service and maintenance of such devices and that Ecomedservice medical centre didn't invite competent specialists to maintain such equipment in order to save money.”

He stressed the ventilator “was not working properly for 40 minutes during the surgery”.

Volkau said the medical centre's employees, who had been detained in connection with the criminal case, “are giving evidence which is sometimes controversial” and investigators “are carrying out investigative procedures to obtain information”.