Noyabrsk, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia, February 2022

News report from June 2023:

Unknown individuals have published photos from a morgue on social media, with the images showing a detailed autopsy of the body of a young woman. The authors of the photos claim that it is the body of a 22-year-old woman from Noyabrsk — her body was found beneath the windows of an apartment building on Magistralnaya Street back in February of last year. The morgue photos were posted on the evening of June 16 on the Telegram channel NSK.

“One of the morgue employees is photographing corpses and leaking them online. He is also spreading disinformation, claiming that the woman was ‘brutally murdered.’ We would like to draw public attention to this and hold the morgue employee accountable,” the post said.

Less than an hour later, the post was deleted from the Telegram channel. It was also not possible to find the group on social media where the morgue photos had allegedly been leaked.

For comment, the editorial team of MK Yamal contacted the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

“The criminal case initiated and investigated by the Noyabrsk Interdistrict Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug has been concluded with a court verdict. The defendant was convicted under Article 125 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. As for the dissemination of these photographs on social media, as far as we know, the police are conducting a review,” representatives of the Yamal Investigative Committee told us.

The regional Investigative Committee clarified that initially, a criminal case had been opened into the woman’s death under the article ‘Incitement to Suicide.’ The suspect was a man acquainted with the 22-year-old woman from Noyabrsk. During court proceedings, the charge was reclassified, and the verdict against the resident of Yamal was delivered under the article ‘Abandonment in Danger.’ The Investigative Committee did not disclose what sentence was imposed.

Regarding the publication of the morgue photographs, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug told us that police will conduct an investigation.

“The Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Noyabrsk has ordered a review into the fact of the publication of the photographs,” a representative of the Interior Ministry told our correspondent.

The editorial team of MK Yamal also sent an inquiry to the Noyabrsk Central City Hospital. At the time of publication, no response had been received.