Law enforcement authorities in Ukraine are investigating the circumstances surrounding what they say was the suicide of a 19-year-old medical student from Turkmenistan.
Prosecutors say Mukkadas Nasyrlaeva jumped to her death off a bridge in Kyiv on January 30.
In a statement on February 19, the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office said it was investigating whether anyone had incited Nasyrlaeva, a student at the National Medical University, to commit suicide.
The statement cited media reports as saying that her decision “might have been caused by difficulties that appeared during her studies at the university, namely misunderstandings with its leadership.”
In its own statement the same day, the university said that Nasyrlaeva had been expelled in January for violation of immigration regulations as her student visa expired on December 17.
A lawyer for Nasyrlaeva’s family, Rovshanbek Rozmetov, wrote earlier on Facebook that Nasyrlaeva committed suicide after a talk with the university’s deputy dean for work with foreign students.
He said the deputy dean refused to sign papers requested by the Turkmen Embassy in Kyiv that would have enabled Nasyrlaeva to extend her visa without leaving Ukraine.
In another statement on February 19, the university said that it had suspended the deputy dean pending further investigation.
Nasyrlaeva, who was fluent in four languages, was one of the top students in the university and the leader of a group being trained as dentists, according to Rozmetov.
Source: RFE/RL
Russian: Пропавшая студентка прыгнула с моста Патона после конфликта в деканате
