The Ministry of Justice has expanded the list of diseases with which they are not sent to a pre-trial detention center

The Ministry of Justice has amended the list of serious illnesses that prevent the sending of suspects or accused persons to a pre-trial detention center. The list includes 90 diseases in accordance with the latest version of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). The ministry has softened the conditions under which citizens are sent to a pre-trial detention center. The Ministry of Justice developed the project jointly with the Federal Penitentiary Service and the Ministry of Health.

“Of course, these changes will make it possible not to place much more people in a pre-trial detention center than now. In some cases, perhaps this will save their lives, ”said TASS in the press service of Boris Titov, authorized under the President of Russia for the protection of the rights of entrepreneurs, who initiated the introduction of the project.

As the agency was informed, before there were no specific formulations in the list of diseases with which it is forbidden to place citizens in a pre-trial detention center. There is also a softening of the conditions for sending people with diseases to the isolation ward. “For example, with regard to tuberculosis of the respiratory organs, the requirement “of a progressive course, the cure of which cannot be achieved by any methods” has been removed. Such categoricalness used to give a formal opportunity to deny the patient the right to avoid a pre-trial detention center, ”the press service reports the words of the deputy head of the legal expert service of the commissioner’s office, Natalya Ryabova.

With regard to other diseases, the wording “progressive course” was replaced by “lack of positive dynamics”, and “urgency” of treatment by “necessity” in the case when the patient cannot be assisted in the pre-trial detention center.

In October 2020, Boris Titov sent an initiative to the Supreme Court to expand the list of diseases that hinder the detention of the accused. Among other things, it was proposed to release prisoners with HIV in the severe phase of the disease, protracted mental disorders, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and various types of tuberculosis. Also, Mr. Titov proposed to reduce the conditions when assessing the severity of the disease of persons whose guilt has not yet been proven by the court.

Lusine Balasyan