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MOSCOW, March 02, 2013 (AFP)
Russia on Saturday expressed concern over a US coroner’s report that said an adopted Russian boy died in Texas accidentally, clearing his US parents of wrongdoing.
Moscow learned of the coroner’s findings that the death of Max Shatto (born Maxim Kuzmin) death was an accident “with concern,” the foreign ministry’s rights representative Konstantin Dolgov said in a statement.
The foreign ministry considered the results of the three-year-old’s autopsy to be incomplete and demanded that US officials provide Russia with the necessary documents to help shed light on the case, including the boy’s death certificate.
“Only an examination of these documents will enable meaningful conclusions to be reached about the circumstances surrounding the Russian child’s death and determine our possible future steps,” Dolgov said.
“We are expecting that the US side will fulfil its obligations on this matter fully and without delay.”
The statement came a day after the release of a coroner’s report said that the boy, who was found unconscious in the backyard of his Texas home in January and died in hospital, had died from a lacerated artery in his bowel due to blunt force trauma in his abdomen.
A toxicology report found no drugs or medicines in the boy’s system and the coroner also noted that he had a mental disorder that caused him to hurt himself.
Dolgov took issue with the toxicology findings, saying that a lawyer for the Shattos had said the parents “had been giving the boy a strong psychoactive drug over an extended period of time.”
Dolgov also complained that his ministry had learned of the autopsy results through the media instead of through official channels and that the boy’s Russian passport had not yet been returned.
Although four doctors who reviewed the autopsy results cleared Laura and Allen Shatto of wrongdoing, they could still face negligence charges for leaving the three-year-old alone in the yard, where he was found unconscious.
The Moscow-based Investigative Committee, which earlier opened a probe into the boy’s death, said in a separate statement that it had also requested US authorities to forward to Russia the results of the investigation into the boy’s death.
