The head of a prison colony in the Russian republic of Tatarstan was found hanged in his office, in what investigators said was apparent suicide, the Interfax news agency reported Tuesday.
Police have been looking into the circumstances around the death of Azfar Kadirov, the prison warden in Tatarstan's capital Kazan, a spokeswoman for the regional branch of the federal penitentiary service, or UFSIN, Inga Mazurenko, was quoted as saying. She confirmed the suicide hypothesis, the report said.
An unidentified law-enforcement official in Tatarstan said Kadirov hanged himself in his office, Interfax reported. There was no word of a possible motive.
A deputy chief of the same prison colony, Igor Leonidov, was arrested earlier this month on charges of receiving a large bribe from one of the inmates, in exchange for easing his incarceration regime and pushing for his release on parole, Interfax reported, citing the regional branch of Russia's Investigative Committee.
Leonidov was allegedly acting in collusion with unidentified accomplices, an Investigative Committee spokesperson was quoted as saying, without specifying whether the supposed accomplices were working inside or outside the prison.
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