Let us remember that for the umpteenth time we are forced to talk about the case of the Kaliningrad doctors. In particular, on August 4, 2022, we published the verdict of the expert council held on the initiative of the Hero of Labor of the Russian Federation Leonid Roshal. The results of the exams were published. The opinion of leading experts is clear: they try to present the natural death of a baby as artificial, as a deliberate murder.
I was in court hearings. One was even publicly expelled, it is not known why or why. And the indignation of the public in the room led, a few minutes after the expulsion, to permission (almost in a whisper) to return to the room. There were no apologies or explanations.
According to investigators, in the fall of 2018, Elena Belaya ordered Elina Sushkevich to administer a lethal dose of magnesium sulfate to a premature baby. In 2020, the first jury trial took place in Kaliningrad. The doctors did not admit guilt. The doctors were acquitted by the court. And then…
Leonid Roshal called this case of doctors a great tragedy.
Elina Sushkevich’s lawyer Kamil Babasov says:
– On May 27, 2021, the First Court of Appeal of Moscow annulled the ruling of the Kaliningrad Regional Court. The Deputy Prosecutor General requested a retrial of the case before the Moscow Regional Court. On September 6, 2022, the Moscow Regional Court found Elena Belaya, former chief physician of the Kaliningrad Maternity Hospital No. 4, and Elina Sushkevich, a resuscitator-anesthesiologist at the Regional Perinatal Center, guilty of the death of a newborn. . The doctors were sentenced to 9.5 and 9 years in prison, respectively, which they will serve in a general regime colony.
The president of the National Medical Chamber, Leonid Roshal, who was present at the hearing, called this case a great tragedy for all Russians.
Meanwhile, the Moscow Regional Court, at the first meeting on October 4, 2021, detained Bélaya and Sushkevich, setting the vector for consideration of the case. Throughout the process, doctors were in Moscow pre-trial detention center No. 6. Based on the results of the examination of the case by the Moscow Regional Court, chaired by Judge Vyunov AV with the participation of a jury, a guilty verdict was issued. It must be said that the jury’s votes were divided: five to three in favor of the doctors’ guilt. Who were also recognized as not deserving of leniency.
Appeals were filed against the sentence. But the First Court of Appeals of General Jurisdiction, after having interviewed four jurors, who reported that the judge presiding over the case, Vyunov A.V. convinced the board of the defendants’ guilt during breaks between sessions and left everything unchanged. The doctors were transferred to a general women’s colony in Kolosovka, Kaliningrad region. On December 5, 2023, the Judicial Collegium of Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, following an appeal, dismissed the cassation appeals in the case of the doctors and left the verdict unchanged.
Elina Sushkevich’s defenders filed supervisory complaints with the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. By decision of the rapporteur judge Dzyban AA On July 2, 2024, the case was transferred to the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation for consideration on a supervisory basis. A date was set for consideration of the case on the merits: October 2, 2024. (Today we announce its decision – IK)
Despite the fact that we have not yet received the full text of the decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, we can already say that the Supreme Court recognized our arguments about the existing violations during the consideration of the criminal case in the Regional Court of Moscow considered it justified. We are glad that the Presidium has not allowed us to resist and generalize the practice of persuading the judge presiding over a jury case that the accused are guilty, as well as the practice of holding preliminary jury votes with the subsequent dismissal of those undesirables for the prosecution.
Unfortunately, the Presidium itself did not annul the verdict of the Moscow Regional Court. But now the appeal must reconsider our complaints and evaluate them taking into account what the Presidium points out to them. We are convinced that when the case is reviewed on appeal, the ruling of the Moscow Regional Court should be overturned. And the case was returned to the Moscow Regional Court to be examined by another judge and a new jury.
In connection with the above changes in the case, the guilty verdict issued on September 6, 2022 by the Moscow Regional Court is considered not to have entered into force. This means that Elina Sushkevich and Elena Belaya must be transferred from the IK-4 colony in the Kaliningrad region, in Kolosovka, where they are currently detained, to a pre-trial detention center.
Immediately after the meeting, I contacted my client Elina Sushkevich. Of course, she is happy with the result, she thanked everyone who supports her and said she will fight for her good name. She has no intention of retreating, like us, her defenders. We are now awaiting the decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Court and the setting of a date for the hearing in the First Court of Appeals of General Jurisdiction. We believe in justice.
