Agencies are not taking responsibility for the death of a child in a gym

Sambo coach Mehman Khalilov, using cruel teaching methods to young children, killed  a7-year-old Farid Bakarov during training. The tragedy occurred on April 30, in the sports hall of school No. 19 of the village of Z.Tagieva, near Sumgayit. The video from the surveillance camera shows how the owner of the silver and bronze medals Khalilov throws the boys, not caring about safety, and continuing criminal actions after the child cannot stand on his feet. Farid, who was taken to the hospital, died.

Law enforcement agencies have initiated a criminal case under Article 126.3 of the Criminal Code (Intentional infliction of serious harm to health - resulting in the death of the victim by negligence). The court chose a preventive measure against Mehman Khalilov (born in 1994) in the form of detention for a period of 4 months, for the period of the investigation, which will be followed by a trial.

The Ministry of Science and Education in the comments (there was no comment on the ministry's website) only reported that the master of sports M.Khalilov conducted training at school in accordance with extracurricular activities practiced in the secondary education system, under the guidance of specialists. The comment notes a violation: a preschool-age child trained without his official registration.

In an interview with Turan, the head of the ministry's press service, Jasarat Valehov, added that the deceased child was a relative of the coach, so Khalilov fulfilled the request of the child's parents and accepted him into the section, although martial arts classes are permissible with children at least 9 years old.

The representative does not consider the director of the 19th school and the Ministry of Science and Education to be the culprit, although the murder occurred within the educational institution. According to him, the coach rented a gym, the coach has a higher sports education, there are no violations of the law in this. And the director of the school could not personally control every three-hour training session in the room entrusted to him. Khalilov has been conducting sports classes at that school since November 2022," the representative added.

"The Ministry of Science and Education will conduct its investigation, and the decision on the school's management will be made after the investigation is completed by law enforcement agencies," said J. Valehov.

The State Committee for Women, Family and Children Affairs is concerned about the tragedy in Sumgayit. They believe that since the murder took place within the educational institution, the Ministry of Science and Education and a specific school are responsible for what happened.

"On May 2, the Committee held an interdepartmental meeting on the situation in children's educational institutions, along with the problems, the death of a child in the gym of the 19th school was also discussed. This case indicates the need for increased monitoring by the Committee in children's and school institutions, an investigation will be conducted. The State Committee expresses regret over the tragedy in the Bakarov family," Teymur Mardanoglu, head of the press service of the State Committee told Turan. This story has its own fault of the press and social networks that put up a terrifying video on their websites.

As media expert Alesker Mammadli told Turan, exposing photos and videos of minors in the open press and networks is morally unacceptable if there is no permission from the parents of the children. On the other hand, the new version of the law "On Mass Media" provides for liability for such violations in the press. The measure of responsibility, that is, the severity of the punishment is not specified in the law, but representatives of the affected party can sue the distributors of such materials.

"But in this case a question arises: How could the public have known the truth about what happened if the video had not been released into the public domain? Even if it had been available, we can see how state structures try to lessen the gravity of the perception of what happened. Note that without the videotape the public would be held hostage to interpretations. Consequently, it would be reasonable to exempt media actors from criminal and administrative liability for releasing photo and video evidence which reveals a threat to public and state security", says Mehman Aliyev, director of Turan Agency.--0--