Convicted youth with rare disease is not allowed to appeal for 9 months

Every day, dozens of inmates, among whom are many sick, old people and women, are transported from Belokamennaya for this one and only purpose. For some of them, the stage becomes real torture. But jailers assure that if prisoners are not transported, the limit could reach 50 percent.

Overcrowding in pre-trial detention centers is evil, but they are fighting it with strange methods. In the case of a prisoner suffering from Bruton’s disease, the judge wrote down her decision for almost a year (!) and sent it to the appellate court only after the complaint of the guy’s relatives to the Qualification Board of Judges…

Artem is 21 years old. He has suffered from Bruton’s disease since childhood. In general, this is not just a rare, but also an insidious disease. It is dangerous because a person without treatment is susceptible to any infections. In one of the first cases of the disease described in the medical literature, a four-year-old boy suffered from sepsis, meningitis and pneumonia over a short period.

Artem Gordeev was no more lucky. He suffered from severe purulent meningitis twice, suffered osteomyelitis and much more. His condition improved after his disability was established, and he began to receive the necessary drug free of charge (it was administered intravenously once a month). The guy graduated from a service industry college and officially got a job as a cook.

During the pandemic, the establishment closed, Artem was left without work. Things were so bad that he turned to a microfinance organization for a small loan. I thought: even though the interest rates are extortionate, he will repay the debt quickly. Did not work out. And soon collectors began to pester him, demanding 150 thousand rubles. They threatened me over the phone. We met at the entrance. The guy explained to them that while there was no money, he could return it a little later.

“The collectors also called us, his relatives, with threats,” says my mother.

One of the collectors offered to work off the debt and sent a link to a telegram page, following which Artem ended up in a store called “Ninja”.

From the court materials: “From correspondence with this store, he understood that he would have to make bookmarks with a narcotic drug.”

Gordeev was given coordinates where to pick up the drugs and indicated the places where he was supposed to place them (and photograph them). He didn’t have time to make a single bookmark because he was detained by the police. Five packages of mephedrone with a total weight of 0.84 grams were found in the jacket pockets and they were charged with attempted drug trafficking.

At first Artem was placed in custody, but then released under house arrest. The case was investigated quickly. The main witnesses are police officers. Need I say that no one began to involve a collector?

The judge of the Tushinsky court stated in her decision: Artem could improve his difficult financial situation in another way, not criminal. She’s right, life’s troubles do not exempt you from criminal liability. But, on the other hand, if provocation had been proven, this would have freed the guy from responsibility. Provocations are prohibited by law.

Be that as it may, the court found Artem guilty of Part 3 of Article 228.1 of the Criminal Code “Illegal production or sale” through Article 30 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Attempted to commit a crime”). Despite his disability, despite the fact that Artem had never been convicted and other mitigating circumstances, Judge Orlova sentenced him to 5 years in a maximum security colony. The verdict was handed down on December 27, 2022.

Five years is almost a death sentence for a person with Bruton’s disease. But relatives hoped for an appeal. Artem himself and his lawyer (his mother found a lawyer) filed as many as 5 appeals.

Let me clarify the procedure a little. The complaint is filed in the name of the appellate authority, but is sent by mail or brought “by foot” to the same court that issued the verdict. The judge will examine the complaint to see if it complies with the law – whether deadlines have been missed, whether this particular person has the right to appeal (anyone who wants to does not have the right to appeal someone else’s sentence). And then he sends the case itself and the complaint against it to the appeal.

So, Artyom’s criminal case has not yet been received by the appellate court. So the appeal date has not yet been set. Although almost 9 months have passed since the verdict!

The lawyer appealed to the Qualification Board of Judges, regarding the actions of Judge Orlova as a disciplinary offense, liability for which is provided for in Art. 12.1. Law of the Russian Federation “On the status of judges”.

“This is a common story for Moscow courts,” says former prosecutor Alexei Fedyarov. – The judge is overwhelmed with cases. I don’t think she had any malicious intent here. But this, of course, is unacceptable.

“The time frame for transferring a case from the court of first instance to the appellate instance very much depends on the verdict and the size of the case,” says Andrey Grivtsov, ex-investigator for particularly important cases of the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee.

All this time, Artyom was in Moscow pre-trial detention center No. 3 “Presnya”. For some time he did not receive the drug at all (the medicine that is available at the Federal Penitentiary Service does not suit him). Then my mother was allowed to transfer the medicine to the isolation ward, and Artem was given it there. But the other day the guy was taken to the stage. The employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service knew very well about the illness (I wrote a request) and that there would be an appeal (that is, the prisoner would still have to be returned to Moscow, so why torture a disabled person – ride around the country in a Stolypin carriage?) And still Gordeev was sent. Now Artem is in pre-trial detention center No. 1 in Ivanovo.

Mom says that it is virtually impossible to bring the drug there:

– I get it with a discounted prescription at the pharmacy on Petrovka. Its transportation requires special temperature conditions. That is, I simply cannot bring him safely to Ivanovo. I beg you to return my son to Moscow!