Man dies from hunger protesting against his son's sentence

The police of the city of Omsk, Russia, continue the investigation of the death of the 64-year-old local male resident. The man supposedly died as a result of hunger strike, officials with the regional department of the Investigative Committee said.

The man, named as Aleksei Nedelko, decided to go on hunger strike after his son, Alexander, was sentenced to four years in a colony on charges of drug trafficking.

The father believed that his son was set up after his mother wrote a statement saying that there was a drug den in their building.

Having learned of the sentence to his son, the elderly man suffered a heart attack. As soon as he recovered, the man joined four other people, who also suffered from the actions of the law-enforcement agencies. The people went on hunger strike to attract attention to the problem of corruption in the authorities.

The action of protest was launched on January 20. The protesters refused from food for more than a week. The initiator of the action died on January 29. 

"It has been tentatively determined that the man died in his apartment in the city of Omsk, after the illness. We will have to investigate whether he took part in the hunger strike, which a group of residents organized. The procedural decision will be made once the cause of death is determined," officials said.