A seriously ill inmate died after being refused medical treatment in a center of emergency aid in Russia’s Siberian republic of Yakutia, local prosecutors said on Tuesday.
The inmate, identified only by his surname Sofronov, was taken to the medical center in Yakutsk in early December, where he was diagnosed with numerous illnesses, including kidney failure and severe anemia, as well as life-threatening conditions of lungs, heart and liver.
"Despite those illnesses, doctors refused to hospitalize Sofronov and render him emergency medical aid,” saod Timur Nikiforov, a senior assistant to the republic’s chief prosecutor.
“They cited the lack of vacant places as a ground for hospitalization refusal and issued a recommendation for in-patient treatment in a penitentiary facility,” he added.
The man was taken back to Yakutia’s central penitentiary hospital where he died a day later.
A probe revealed that doctors underestimated the severity of Sofronov’s condition and groundlessly denied him medical assistance.
“Investigators currently study whether criminal charges can be laid,” Nikiforov said.
The issue of poor medical treatment in Russian pretrial detention centers has become increasingly controversial following the high-profile deaths in custody of Hermitage Capital Management fund legal adviser Sergei Magnitsky in November 2009 and Vera Trofimova, a defendant in a fraud case, in April 2010.
On January 10, The European Court of Human Rights has awarded three seriously ill Russian remand prisoners a total of 38,000 euros following lawsuits against the Russian authorities for poor treatment in pretrial detention centers.
