07 October 2016, Friday

Amur Khakulov’s wife informed lawyers with Russian Justice Initiative today of her husband’s death in prison colony 12 in Kirov Region. On June 15, 2016, the Kirovo-Chepetsky District Court refused to release Khakulov from prison on health grounds. Khakulov had been diagnosed with a number of incurable illnesses, the most serious of which was terminal stage kidney failure.

Lawyers with Russian Justice Initiative indicated repeatedly that the failure to provide medical aid in this case was a direct violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Earlier, the ECHR ordered as an urgent measure that Khakulov be given haemodialysis for a time. The procedure was carried out, but was later changed to peritoneal dialysis instead, due to lack of financing.

Lawyers worked to help Khakulov receive medical aid in the prison colony. They also sent an application to the ECHR, which the ECHR communicated on September 16, 2016 (see http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-167314). In its communication, the Court asked the Russian authorities to answer a number of questions about the failure to provide Khakulov with medical assistance. “Doctors examined Khakulov and recommended peritoneal dialysis as the most suitable long-term kidney substitution therapy for the patient. This procedure involves introducing into the abdomen via a pipe a dialysis solution that remains there for 4-12 hours. This procedure is simpler than haemodialysis, but it requires sterile conditions and we fear that this could be problematic in the prison colony environment. We applied to the Kirovo-Chepetsky District Court in Kirov Region, and we hope that they will decide on Khakulov’s release, taking into account the state of his health, all the more so as the medical commission of May 4, 2016, concluded that Khakulov’s illness is an obstacle to serving his sentence”, said lawyer with Russian Justice Initiative Diana Kostina.

Amur Khakulov was found guilty of involvement in the attack on Nalchik in October 2005 (trial of the 58). He spent more than 10 years in remand prison No. 1 in Nalchik, waiting for trial and for the sentence to take effect. While still at the remand prison, he was found to be suffering from chronic kidney failure, chronic kidney disease and other illnesses at the end of 2014, but there was practically no treatment of serious illnesses at the remand prison. This prompted Khakulov’s wife to turn to lawyers at Russian Justice Initiative in August 2015. She said that Khakulov was not receiving qualified medical aid, or the prescribed medicines essential for his health.  


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