In Rostov-on-Don, prison hospital doctors were convicted in the case of torture

The court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced three doctors of the Interregional Tuberculosis Hospital No. 19 in the case of torture of prisoners. The former deputy head of the hospital, Aleksandr Liakh, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, the head of the psychiatric department, Daria Pozdnyakova, was sentenced to six years in prison, and the psychiatrist Anastasia Potorochyna was sentenced to five years. They were found guilty of exceeding their official powers, reports Kavkaz.Realii.

Lyakh was also deprived of the rank of lieutenant colonel of the internal service, and Pozdniakova and Potorochyna were given the rank of senior lieutenant. The court prohibited them from holding administrative positions and practicing medicine for another three years after their release.

According to the investigation, Lyakh ordered Pozdnyakova to use physical force on the convicts, and Potorochyna corrected the medical cards to hide the violations. 42 prisoners were recognized as victims in the case, two of them died. Convicts talked about beatings, threats and deprivation of food by the staff.

According to the activist and doctor Nikolai Kaklyugin, who received three years in prison for a drug case (he calls it a falsified one) and spent two weeks in MOTB-19, far from all the medical workers involved in the torture have been convicted.

“The chain in this case goes higher: Tigran Mkrtchyan, the chief physician of MOTB-19 at the time, and Alexander Pachganov, the head of the entire medical service of the FSIN in the Rostov region, should also be sitting on the dock. The three convicts are far from the full number of those who involved in this terrible mockery,” he said.

Kaklyugin seeks to initiate a criminal case against the mentioned doctors, as well as against the head of the medical and sanitary unit of the FSIN, Colonel Artem Alekseenko and doctor Alexander Orlov from 2021. In December of last year, the refusal to initiate the case was canceled at least for the sixth time.

Lyakh was dismissed from his post in May (according to other data – in September) 2021, and since May 2022 he has been under house arrest. Pozdniakova and Potorochyna were under a stay-at-home order.

• The case of the paramedics who participated in the torture was allocated to a separate proceeding. In addition, a case of negligence against the chief physician of MOTB-19 is being investigated, and another psychiatrist, whose punishment is being insisted on by the representatives of the victims, concluded a pre-trial agreement with the investigation.
• Psychiatrist Ksenia Markarova has already been convicted in the same case, she entered into a pretrial agreement, testified against her former colleagues and received a three-year suspended prison sentence with a ban on medical practice for two years.