Moscow traffic police on Friday denied reports that some evidence was excluded from the records of a fatal accident involving the Russian president's representative to parliament.
The incident took place in an elite region west of Moscow when envoy Garry Minkh's BMW collided with an Opel Astra. Minkh was not injured in the accident, but his driver died and the female Opel driver suffered multiple fractures.
The woman's brother, Anton Yarosh, has alleged that investigators were suppressing some of the evidence.
"That is not the case," police spokesman Yevgeny Gildeyev said. "All witnesses to this traffic accident are being questioned by investigators in the presence of their lawyers and all the evidence they provide is entered into official records."
Yarosh said, in particular, investigators refused to record evidence that traffic police were moving pieces of the wrecked car from one side of the road to the other.
Eyewitnesses said the accident was the result of Minkh's car pulling into the oncoming lane.
A presidential administration spokesman earlier said the accident took place on the Opel's side of the road and that skid marks indicated that the Opel, not the BMW, pulled into the oncoming lane.
Violations of traffic rules that result in a death are punishable by up to five years behind bars in Russia.
Several road accidents involving high-profile figures sparked a wave of protests in the country last year.
Two women were killed in February when their car collided head-on with a chauffeured Mercedes belonging to Anatoly Barkov, the vice-president of Russian oil giant LUKoil.
Barkov was not charged with the accident, despite evidence that his car pulled into the oncoming lane.
His car had a flashing blue light used by many businessmen and state officials to bypass traffic rules. The use of blue lights by VIPs has sparked a large grassroots protest movement.
MOSCOW, January 28 (RIA Novosti)
