In the Krasnodar Territory, a court released a visually impaired defendant from a pre-trial detention center

The Presidium of the Krasnodar Regional Court replaced the preventive measure from detention to house arrest for 18-year-old Mark Yavorsky, who has been visually impaired since childhood, reports the Public Verdict Foundation, which provides legal assistance to Yavorsky regarding conditions of detention and failure to provide medical care.

Yavorsky was arrested in 2015, when he was 16 years old; the young man spent a year and four months in a pre-trial detention center. He suffers from vision problems, which are 0.1 of normal visual acuity. As human rights activists note, in the conditions of the pre-trial detention center, the young man’s vision deteriorated, and he also developed kidney disease.

Despite this, in April the Khostinsky District Court of Sochi extended Yavorsky’s detention by 3 months. The decision was appealed to the Krasnodar Regional Court.

“Yavorsky’s representatives and his parents insisted that detention could lead to complete loss of vision, and also that the young man was not going to hide from the investigation, that he needed medical care, which could not be provided in a pre-trial detention center. As a result, the Regional Court decided to place Yavorsky under house arrest,” reports Public Verdict.

Human rights activists promise to ensure that Yavorsky receives medical care while under house arrest. In addition, they intend to send a complaint to the ECHR in connection with violations of Article 3 of the European Convention for the Protection of Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (prohibition of torture and ill-treatment).