Retrial in Moscow illegal transplant case to begin June 22

May 31, 2005

MOSCOW (Itar-Tass) - Russia's Supreme Court said retrial in the case of the Moscow doctors accused of illegal transplantation of human organs will begin on June 22.

A preliminary hearing will take place at the Moscow City Court, lawyer Yuri Kastanov told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

On April 19, the Supreme Court overturned the verdict which acquitted the transplantologists. The judge agreed with the prosecutor's arguments that the verdict of not guilty "was invalid and unjustified."

The defendants are the deputy chief of the resuscitation unit of Moscow's city hospital No. 20, Irina Lirtsman, the unit's physician Lyubov Pravdenko, and two transplant surgeons of Moscow's Coordination Centre of Organ Donation, Pyotr Pyatnichuk and Bairma Shagdurova.

Lirtsman is also charged of abuse of office.

Prosecutors claim the physicians were going to resect kidneys of a patient before his death.

The patient, a 50-year-old Orekhov, was admitted to hospital No. 20 at 9 o'clock in the morning on April 11, 2003, with head injury.

His condition was critical, and the hospital reported to the centre of organ donation availability of a potential kidney transplant.

Police interfered with preparations of the physicians for kidney resection.

Resuscitators of the Interior Ministry's hospital, who came with policemen, found Orekhov outside the resuscitation unit and prepared for the operation. The patient was still showing signs of life - blood pressure and heart beats.

During the statements of the parties, the prosecutor for the state demanded that the doctors be sentenced to eight to nine years in prison.

Copyright © 2005 ITAR-TASS.

This article posted July 13, 2005.