The ex-head of the Meshalkin clinic had his arrest extended until November 19

The court extended until November 19 the term of detention of Alexander Karaskov, the former head of the National Medical Research Center named after academician Meshalkin and ex-deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Novosibirsk Region.

Ksenia Koroyed, assistant prosecutor of the Central District , told Kommersant that she considered the investigator's petition convincing and supported it.

Before the start of the trial, Karaskov told the investigator: “No one has ever kept the world's leading cardiac surgeon in a cage, only you. Get into history." The security forces asked to hold the hearing behind closed doors, citing the need to preserve the secrecy of the investigation and the accused's personal life.

The ex-director objected to the closure of the process: “The fact is that I have always been a public figure. Over the 40 years of my career in cardiac surgery, I have performed tens of thousands of heart surgeries. Moreover, a number of operations of the highest degree of complexity. And when the investigator finds things that have suddenly become closed, to be honest, this is incomprehensible to me. My relatives who have gathered here have the right to see and hear what is happening.”

In May 2019, Alexander Karaskov was fired from the post of director of the Meshalkin clinic, which he led for 20 years. At the May session of the legislature, he resigned as a deputy - he called the house that was not declared by mistake the formal reason. The doctor headed the list of "United Russia" in the elections in 2015.

Alexander Karaskov and his wife Irina Boytsova were charged under Part 4 of Art. 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (embezzlement) and part 5 of Art. 33, part 4 of Art. 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (complicity in embezzlement). Against the background of these events, Karaskov himself had a heart attack and was brought to the courtroom from the hospital.

On the morning of the election of a preventive measure, Karaskov's defense published his open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He stated "the actual raider seizure of the Center, in order to possibly control financial budgetary flows."

The Central District Court of Novosibirsk arrested the surgeon until August 9.

Earlier, a criminal case was initiated against the deputy director of the Meshalkin clinic, Yevgeny Pokushalov, an outstanding surgeon who oversaw the scientific direction in the institution. He was accused of fraud and money laundering in the procurement of drugs. The cases of Pokushalov and Karaskov were united.