Fake alcohol supply 'should be equated with murder' after 12 die in Krasnoyarsk

The toll from drinking sham Jack Daniels in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk has now reached a dozen, with six detained on the case, but another 700 bottles of deadly imitation whiskey are still potentially on the market. Eight are hospitalised. 

Action is to be taken by the Russian authorities to shut down websites where the lethal drinks are sold. 

But now the powerful Russian Investigative Committee has urged a law change to equate the production and selling of fake alcohol with murder. 'We believe responsibility should be comparable with an intentional killing,' said spokesman Vladimir Markin.

Currently the law is comparable with that of causing death through negligence. The committee wants 'punishment of up to six years in prison' for one person's death 'and up to ten years if two or more people die.'

He stated: 'In our opinion, a person producing lethal alcoholic drinks is well aware of the social danger of his activity and possible consequences. We must bear it in mind that alcohol consumption in Russia has mass proportions.'

He singled out the shocking current case in Krasnoyarsk which involves methanol poisoning. In other regions between 9 and 23 November an additional 15 people died. 

Victims in the Krasnoyarsk bought the bootleg Jack Daniels whiskey from an internet seller who claimed the impossibly low price - 250 to 300 roubles a bottle, $3.75 to $4.50 - was because the liquor had been seized by customs who sanctioned the sell-off. The claim was false and the so-called whiskey - containing methanol - has led to a rising toll.

A female victim was reported to have lost her sight. Hospitals began registering victims of poisoning on 21 November, and medics say many of the victims are middle class rather than homeless or poverty-stricken, who are often the victims of severe alcohol poisoning. 

Konstantin Alontsev said of his colleague Artem: 'He bought Jack Daniels to share with his friends when they were in sauna.' They 'drank it in the evening and later all of them were hospitalised.' His friends survived but Artem 'fell into a coma and died  three days later.'

 Another victim, Sergey Skorinov, 40, also died after ordering the counterfeit whiskey from an online shop.