Relatives of terminally ill prisoner from Dagestan appeal to ECtHR

A complaint of Magomedsaid Gazaliev, a resident of Makhachkala, who is serving his sentence in a colony in the Republic of Komi, of his mother and two sisters, has been sent to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The convict and his relatives complain that, despite the fact that Gazaliev has a serious fatal illness the court refuses to release him.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in November 2006, Magomedsaid Gazaliev was sentenced to 16 years and 9 months in prison on charges of encroaching on the lives of law enforcers. In November 2018, Mardjanat Gazalieva, his sister, appealed to the bosses of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service (known as FSIN) asking them to transfer her brother closer to their home. According to her story, her brother was diagnosed with a fourth-degree cancer.

Relatives hope for an accelerated consideration of the complaint given the grave health condition of the convict, Tatiana Okushko, a lawyer, representing the applicants' interests at the ECtHR, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent on March 10.

According to Ms Okushko, the applicants argue that, because of the distance to the colony from Dagestan, the mother and sisters are virtually unable to visit Gazaliev. They were also denied the request to transfer the seriously ill inmate closer to Makhachkala so that the old sick mother could visit her son, whom she had not seen for more than ten years.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 11, 2019 at 01:37 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.