Translated material
Death in "Silence"
The prison system only responds to the president
The head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin, dismissed from the investigative bodies the deputy head of the department’s division for the Moscow region, Alexander Filippov, and the head of the department for investigating corruption cases, Valery Ivarlak. This decision was made with the wording “for inadequate control to ensure the rights of the accused.” The name of this accused is Vera Trifonova, but it is no longer possible to restore her violated rights - on April 30, a seriously ill 51-year-old woman died in the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center.Perhaps her name will become as household a name as the name of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who was also killed in prison - he died of a heart attack last November. Then President Dmitry Medvedev intervened in the situation and ordered to understand what had happened and punish the perpetrators. The investigation was carried out and employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) were appointed as “extreme” officers, after which a number of reshuffles were made in this department. No criminal cases followed.
The scandal with the death of Vera Trifonova again could not be resolved without the intervention of the president, who, having contacted Mr. Bastrykin, “demanded to provide all information about the incident, and if the guilt of the investigative authorities is proven, to submit proposals for measures to punish those responsible for death of Trifonova." And the Investigative Committee immediately demonstrated vigorous activity - two high-ranking investigators of the Moscow region were fired, and the one who was in charge of Ms. Trifonova’s case himself became a defendant. Investigator Sergei Pysin, who did not want to release from prison a man suffering from diabetes and chronic pyelonephritis, who could no longer even move independently, will now go to interrogations himself, as if accused of negligence.
Vera Trifonova was accused in a fairly well-known case of attempted fraud, in which the main defendant was Magadan Regional Duma deputy Georgy Shamiryan. He is suspected of allegedly promising one banker the position of senator - representative from the Magadan region in the Federation Council. For his services, Mr. Shamiryan, according to investigators, asked for $1.5 million. This deal was supposed to take place on December 16 last year, but fell through due to the intervention of operatives, who detained Mr. Shamiryan immediately after the transfer of money. Charges of attempted fraud were also brought against the president of the Kitelitnedvizhimost company, Vera Trifonova, and her driver, Yuri Shubin, who allegedly took part in negotiations on the “purchase” of the senator’s seat. The fraud, according to investigators, consisted in the fact that the accused talked about having connections with influential people that they actually did not have. However, Ms. Trifonova refused to admit her guilt. She did not deny that at one time she introduced a banker and a deputy, whom she considered one of the likely candidates for the post of governor of the Magadan region, but she had no idea about any of their transactions and agreements.
Ms. Trifonova, as her lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov said, was detained on December 16 at four o’clock in the morning at home in Odintsovo, near Moscow. Two days later, at the trial on the issue of choosing a preventive measure, she fainted, since even then she was suffering from serious illnesses - diabetes mellitus, diabetic nephropathy and chronic renal failure. However, this did not prevent the court from deciding to arrest her. Until December 30, the woman lay in the intensive care unit of Moscow City Hospital No. 20, and celebrated the New Year in Matrosskaya Tishina, as doctors considered her condition satisfactory for prison conditions.
In the cell, the woman’s condition worsened significantly, and the doctors at the pre-trial detention center hospital concluded that Ms. Trifonova could not take part in investigative actions. However, on February 16, the Odintsovo City Court extended the period of detention for another two months. “When I came to Vera in the pre-trial detention center on March 15, she met me in a wheelchair, completely blind,” said lawyer Zherebenkov. “She cried all the time, complaining that she was not being treated. Fluid constantly accumulated in her lungs, and the prison doctors told her: “Sleep standing up.” This is the only thing they could advise her.”
A few days later, Ms. Trifonova was again sent to the intensive care unit of Hospital No. 20, where she was pumped out of fluid and given a conclusion that she needed treatment in a specialized clinic. According to the lawyer, then the investigator went to the Odintsovo court with a request to release Ms. Trifonova on bail. The lawyers brought certificates confirming that the woman could not receive the necessary treatment in the pre-trial detention center. “Judge Olga Makarova examined the certificates and stated that it only said that there was no necessary medical equipment in the prison, and not that Trifonova was contraindicated to be held in custody,” said Mr. Zherebenkov. “Then I was indignant: “How is this so? In your opinion, it turns out that you can’t get treatment in prison, but you can die there?” But the judge refused to change the preventive measure, saying that the investigator himself could release him on bail.” The lawyer addressed investigator Pysin with this request: “He answered me like this: “It will be too chic for her. Let him confess first.” The lawyer conveyed these words of the investigator to his client when he visited her once again in prison. But she refused to confess because she believed that she had nothing to confess and had not committed any crime.
The investigator filed another petition to extend Ms. Trifonova’s arrest on April 13. “We then once again offered to release her on bail. By that time, a new law had already been passed that regulated the minimum bail amounts for the accused. And Vera’s relatives were ready to pay both 500 and 600 thousand rubles. Well, tell me, where can a blind person in a wheelchair run away? But the investigators didn’t like the fact that she didn’t confess,” Mr. Zherebenkov said.
He also said that on April 16, when the trial took place, the lawyers challenged Judge Makarova. They argued that the Odintsovo court cannot consider the issue of choosing a preventive measure at all - this is dealt with by the courts either at the place of detention (in this case it would be the Preobrazhensky court of the capital) or at the place of the investigation (then it would be the Meshchansky district court Moscow). The judge, according to the lawyer, named a third option - according to the place where the crime was committed, although on this basis cases are considered only on their merits, after the completion of the preliminary investigation.
Mr. Zherebenkov said that on April 16, the investigation presented two documents in support of the request to extend the arrest. The first is a certificate signed by the head of the pre-trial detention center, Fikret Tagiyev, stating that Trifonova’s condition allows her to carry out investigative actions outside the pre-trial detention center and that she can take part in court hearings. The second is a report from operatives that they conducted an inspection at City Hospital No. 20 and found that the doctors were under pressure from the media and relatives of the accused, which is why they gave such a conclusion about the need for treatment in a specialized clinic. On this basis, Judge Makarova decided to extend the arrest until July 16 and transfer Trifonova from “Matrosskaya Tishina” to the Mozhaisk women’s colony, which territorially falls under her jurisdiction. But immediately from the colony the woman was forced to be sent to the Mozhaisk City Hospital in intensive care. The colony's leadership, according to Mr. Zherebenkov, sounded the alarm. “The head of the colony called me and asked: “Did they bring her here to kill her?” He said that neither the colony nor the Mozhaisk hospital had the necessary funds to treat Trifonova.”
After that, she was again sent to Matrosskaya Tishina. “When the Moscow Regional Court held a hearing to appeal the extension of the arrest, I stated that Judge Makarova is not engaged in the administration of justice, but in the killing of a person. And in response they reprimanded me for my unethical attitude towards the judge. But I couldn’t say anything else about her,” lawyer Zherebenkov was indignant. - The prosecutor's office of the Moscow region stated its idea that the preventive measure was chosen unreasonably, but at the court hearing the prosecutor suddenly made the opposite statement for some reason. It took the Moscow Regional Court three minutes to confirm the legality of the Odintsovo court’s decision.”
According to the lawyer, on April 25, Vera Trifonova underwent hemodialysis at Hospital No. 20 and was then returned to the pre-trial detention center, but her condition worsened. A few days later, on April 29, a new decision was made to transfer to the hospital. “Investigator Pysin did not want to talk to me then, citing his busy schedule. He only said that after the May holidays he would think about placing Trifonova for treatment in a specialized clinic,” said Mr. Zherebenkov.
But they didn’t have time to do anything about it - on April 30, Vera Trifonova died. Now Mr. Bastrykin makes strong-willed decisions to fire his employees. Mr. Pysin was suspected of negligence, that is, a careless attitude towards service. Official representative of the Moscow Federal Penitentiary Service Sergei Tsygankov said that, it turns out, the administration of the pre-trial detention center twice asked the investigator to resolve the issue of Trifonova’s release - on March 25 and April 9, but there were no answers.
“From mid-March until Vera’s death, I constantly wrote complaints to the president, and the head of the SKP, Bastrykin, and the Prosecutor General Chaika, and the Commissioner for Human Rights. There was no reaction,” the lawyer said. “But there are a lot of people like Vera.” If the state arrests people, then it must provide them with decent living conditions and treatment. Therefore, now we will seek to initiate criminal cases. And not for negligence. Negligence is simply someone else's mistake. And here there was an abuse of power with grave consequences. They knew perfectly well what they were doing - leaving a person in prison and sabotaging treatment in order to extract a confession from him.” In addition, the lawyers intend to appeal to the Qualification Board of Judges of the Moscow Region with a complaint against Judge Makarova. “Even if Vera were eventually convicted of fraud, she would be released from serving her sentence for health reasons,” they believe.
The death of Vera Trifonova has already caused a strong reaction among human rights activists and the public. The leader of the movement “For Human Rights” Lev Ponomarev said that “it is necessary to change the system in which seriously ill people are placed in pre-trial detention centers and they die.” A member of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Valery Borshchev, said that human rights activists have prepared a letter addressed to the president, the prosecutor general and the chairman of the Supreme Court, in which they demand that those responsible be punished. “We believe that the main culprits are the judge and the investigator. There is a certificate from the hospital, on the basis of which Trifonova should have been given an alternative preventive measure on bail or a recognizance not to leave the place,” Mr. Borshchev said. — The Magnitsky case taught absolutely nothing to anyone. After Magnitsky's death, all those responsible were not punished. So it all happened again.”