Scandal in the Furgal case: an accomplice is killed in a pre-trial detention center by Parkinson’s disease

After the verdict, she should be released, but for now she is kept behind bars

Lawyers for one of the defendants in the case of ex-governor of the Khabarovsk Territory Sergei Furgal appealed to human rights activists with a request to petition for a change in her preventive measure. Galina Aleynikova suffers from a serious illness (the diagnosis has been officially confirmed), which prohibits the punishment of imprisonment from being applied to her. However, this same illness is not included in the register of diseases that prohibit keeping the accused in custody for trial. As a result, the defendant arrived at the start of the trial, which starts tomorrow in Moscow, in critical condition.

As MK learned, we are talking about the second, so-called economic case of Furgal. Let us recall that on the first charge of organizing contract killings, the former governor was sentenced to life imprisonment. On Monday, a new case will start in the Babushkinsky court – on charges of Furgal and his accomplices of theft of SME Bank assets. In the dock are the lawyer of the enterprises of the Torex group controlled by Furgal, Nikolai Shukhov, financial consultant, former deputy chairman of the government of the Khabarovsk Territory Yuri Zolochevsky, chairman of the board of JSC Russian Bank for the Support of Small and Medium Enterprises Dmitry Golovanov and 6 other people, including Two women. They are accused of organizing a criminal community and stealing more than 2 billion rubles from SME Bank, as well as $8.7 million from the foreign company Global Metcorp Limited, between December 2018 and July 2020.

Whether these people are guilty or not is for the court to decide. But one character needs to be talked about separately. This is Galina Aleynikova, who worked as the chief accountant of the Torex group. Again, this is not about the degree of guilt of the 57-year-old woman, but about her physical condition.

Aleynikova has been in pre-trial detention for more than 2.5 years. She was officially diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease – a terrible disease, with which life is not easy even in the wild. And staying behind bars for those suffering from this disease is real torture. Apparently, this is why Parkinson’s disease was included in the register of diseases, the presence of which does not allow a convicted person to serve his sentence in a colony. This is regulated by Russian Government Decree No. 54.

In a colony it doesn’t allow it, but in a pre-trial detention center it does. Paradox? Of course, and what a one! It is difficult to say what motivated the officials, but Parkinson’s disease is not included in the list of diseases listed in Russian Government Resolution No. 3 (a person with these illnesses cannot be placed under arrest).

Logic clearly didn’t spend the night here. Let’s say Aleynikova is found guilty and sentenced to a real prison term. But she will still have to be released immediately – according to Resolution No. 54. So why torture a person, spend government money on his maintenance, if the outcome is obvious in advance?

No answer.

Aleynikova’s condition is assessed as serious. Whether she will live to see the verdict is a big question, especially considering that economic cases take a very long time to be heard. However, all requests to change her preventive measure are frustrated by the indifference of the investigation and the court: Themis repeatedly stamps out the extension of her detention. Apparently, the “one size fits all” rule in our punitive system still prevails over common sense.