Bashkortostan doctors opposed prosecution of their colleague Elina Sushkevich

UFA, 3 July 2019. /Bashinform News Agency/ translated by Tatiana Aksyutina/.

The Bashkortostan trade union of health workers sent an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin in defense of a neonatologist arrested by the investigative committee of Kaliningrad on charges of the premeditated murder of a newborn and the inadmissibility of state policy on the criminal prosecution of medical workers.

“In November last year, the resuscitator of the regional perinatal center Elina Sushkevich was called to provide transportation to the newborn with a body weight of 700 grams at the 23rd week of pregnancy to the Kaliningrad Maternity Hospital No. 4,” the statement says. “Despite the measures taken by the doctor, the newborn could not be saved (according to statistics, all over the world the survival chance of such patients without serious complications does not exceed 5-10%).”

A criminal case was initiated into the death of a newborn by the investigative committee, and Elina Sushkevich was charged with the premeditated murder of a minor (Article 105, Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). She was arrested and confined in the pretrial detention facility. Later, the preventive measure was changed by the court, and now Elina Sushkevich is on house arrest. This high-profile case angered the entire medical community of the country. More than 106 thousand people have already signed the petition in defense of Sushkevich.

The chief doctors of the perinatal centers defended their colleagues; pediatricians began posting photos on the social media with the slogan "#I am Elina Sushkevich", protesting against the criminal prosecution of doctors.

“Since the beginning of the year, in Bashkortostan, only a lawyer of the health workers' trade union has been conducting five criminal cases against doctors - a school medical assistant from Neftekamsk, a cardiologist-surgeon from Sterlitamak. The criminal case against three Kumertau psycho-neurological dispensary doctors who tried to admit a psychiatric patient to a hospital has not yet been dropped, although the Supreme Court of Bashkortostan took the side of the doctors. And these are only cases that are known to us for six months when the doctors applied to the trade union for legal protection,” notes the head of the legal department of the health workers trade union of the republic Vitaly Manzyukov.

Back in February 2018, the health workers' union of Bashkortostan appealed to the President, the State Duma, the Government of the country and the Investigative Committee on the inadmissibility of a policy of harassing healthcare workers.

In March 2019, a petition was posted with comments of the republican doctors. Almost 7.5 thousand people have already subscribed to it. Doctors are also asking to toughen the responsibility for attacks on medical workers while performing their professional duties.

At the same time, the trade union began preparing appeals to the World Health Organization and the International Labor Organization.