MOSCOW, August 28 (RIA Novosti) – Two men lit themselves on fire at Russian courts on Wednesday, first in Moscow and then several hours later in the southern metropolis Rostov-on-Don, authorities said. Both survived with severe injuries.
The first man, a former military officer, doused himself with flammable liquid outside the Supreme Court building in central Moscow around 7:30 a.m., a police spokesperson told RIA, adding that nearby officers managed to put out the flames and call an ambulance.
The court was reportedly considering a lawsuit the man had filed claiming he was unlawfully discharged from the armed forces several years ago. The man performed the self-immolation as an act of protest against judicial bias, Russian media reported.
The second man snuck bottles of gasoline and kerosene into a regional courthouse in Rostov-on-Don, about 120 miles south of Moscow, by hiding the containers in his sports jacket, police said in a statement.
He poured the mixture onto himself and set himself ablaze around 1 p.m. but the building’s fire safety system kicked in and bailiffs were able to extinguish the flames, the statement said.
The man reportedly attempted suicide because of his divorce case, which had been in the court since 2009.
Last month, a 52-year-old man in rural Siberia doused himself with gasoline and lit himself on fire after his wife refused to give him money to buy alcohol, investigators said, adding that he committed the act as soon as she left to visit a friend.
