Ulitskaya asks the Moscow City Court to free the oppositionist who is going blind

Writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya in a letter asked the head of the Moscow City Court, Olga Egorova, to release from custody Vladimir Akimenkov, a defendant in the Bolotnaya case, whose eyesight had significantly deteriorated in the pre-trial detention center. The letter was published on the website of The New Times magazine.

Lyudmila Ulitskaya asked the Moscow City Court to overturn the decision of the Basmanny Court, which left the defendant in the Bolotnaya case, Left Front activist Vladimir Akimenkov, in custody. “If Akimenkov is not treated in a civilian clinic, he will go blind, ” Ulitskaya’s letter says.

The writer expressed her readiness to vouch for Akimenkov and post bail for him.

The list of diseases preventing detention includes only complete blindness, and Vladimir Akimenkov has 10% vision in one eye and 20% in the other. Previously, the lawyer of the arrested oppositionist stated that his client, due to the actions of the court, risks leaving the detention center completely blind. The defense has already appealed the decision of the Basmanny Court to a higher authority, and the Moscow City Court has the right to change the preventive measure to bail or a written undertaking not to leave.

“Each of us will have to approach the hour of death, and each of us will someday appear before the final judgment, and with mercy, only with mercy, many sins are covered. I ask you to do everything in your power so that the young man does not lose his sight, ” wrote Lyudmila Ulitskaya. The writer quoted the doctor Fyodor Gaaz, whose motto was the phrase “Hurry to do good.”

Vladimir Akimenkov was detained on June 10. He is accused of participating in mass riots on May 6 on Bolotnaya Square and assaulting a police officer. Despite the defense’s statements that Akimenkov needs urgent medical care , on November 1, the Investigative Committee stated that he had no “negative dynamics of the disease of the visual organs” and he did not need to be treated in a civilian hospital.