Andsource Physicians from a hospital subordinate to the Federal Penitentiary Service are on trial in Rostov. The court in Rostov-on-Don will consider a criminal case on torture in the interregional tuberculosis hospital No. 19 (MOTB-19) subordinate to the Federal Penitentiary Service. According to investigators, the patients of the institution were unreasonably tied to beds for a long time, which caused many bedsores. 40 people were recognized as victims in the case, two of them died from their injuries. The accused are the former deputy head of the institution Alexander Lyakh, the head of the psychiatric department Daria Pozdnyakova and the psychiatrist Anastasia Potorochina. Each of them faces up to ten years in prison.
The Oktyabrsky District Court of Rostov-on-Don received a criminal case against employees of prison hospital No. 19 (MOTB-19) Alexander Lyakh, Daria Pozdnyakova and Anastasia Potorochina. Depending on the role of each, they are accused of organizing abuse of office, abuse of office and complicity in this crime (part 3 of article 33 and paragraph “a”, paragraph “c” of part 3 of article 286; paragraph “a”, paragraph “c” part 3 article 286; part 5 article 33 and paragraph “a”, paragraph “c” part 3 article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). This was reported to “Kommersant” in the press service of the court.
The case was initiated in September last year by the regional department of the TFR. According to investigators, the torture system operated in the hospital throughout 2020. As stated in the case file, the deputy head of the hospital, Alexander Lyakh, instructed the head of the psychiatric department, Darya Pozdnyakova, to tie up the patients. To hide the traces of the crimes, she asked the psychiatrist Anastasia Potorochina to enter inaccurate information into the patients' medical records.
Patients were tied to beds for more than two hours, which caused many of them to develop bedsores. 40 people were recognized as victims in the case, two of them died.
The press service of the Main Directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Rostov Region told Kommersant that Alexander Lyakh was fired from the penitentiary system in May 2021. Now Mr. Lyakh is under house arrest, Daria Pozdnyakova and Anastasia Potorochina are under house arrest.
The torture in the hospital became known in August 2020. Members of the Public Monitoring Commission (POC) of the Rostov Region published photos of people tied to beds and their injuries on social networks. After that, law enforcement officers began to interview former patients of the institution. “61 people agreed to report physical, sexual and moral violence in MOTB-19 in writing,” Igor Omelchenko, head of the regional PMC, said in a conversation with Kommersant.
The dead, recognized as victims in the case, may be prisoners Alexander Kulikov and Roman Mikhailov. According to the PMC, the first one arrived at the hospital with a fracture of the spine and four ribs, but these injuries were not recorded in the institution. The second, according to the commission, died shortly after a piece of dead skin due to a bedsore was cut off.
Earlier, a court in Rostov closed the criminal case of the MOTB-19 surgeon Alexei Konstantinov, who performed the operation on Roman Mikhailov and was subsequently charged with negligently causing his death. The criminal prosecution was terminated due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for prosecution. Also, due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, Lusine Grigoryan, the endocrinologist of the institution, was released from punishment. As the court established, she incorrectly treated the convicted Dmitry Baksheev, convicted of the murder of a friend and known as the “Krasnodar cannibal”. In February 2020, the man died of type 1 diabetes complicated by ketoacidosis with severe intoxication.
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