Staff of Rostov FSIN hospital challenge verdict about patients' torturing

Alexander Lyakh, a former deputy head of the tuberculosis hospital under the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service (known as FSIN), and the hospital doctors convicted along with him have demanded to cancel the verdict passed on them under the case of torturing patients. All the three convicts insist on their innocence, treating the testimonies of numerous patients and of doctors-their colleagues as false.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that this January a court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Alexander Lyakh to 7.5 years in jail, finding him guilty of organizing patients' torture. Daria Pozdnyakova, the head of the psychiatric ward was sentenced to six years, and Anastasia Potorochina, a psychiatrist, – to five years of freedom deprivation.

The advocates for Alexander Lyakh insist that some hospital doctors gave false testimonies against one of their bosses, the "161.ru" outlet has reported.

The advocates for Pozdnyakova argue that the verdict is "unfairly harsh," while the doctor should be acquitted, since there is no corpus delicti in her actions.

"None of the victims told the court that Potorochina had inflicted bodily harm, beaten them up or tortured them," the complaint says.

According to "orderlies", that is the prisoners, who were employed at the hospital and were Lyakh's subordinate, the convicts, who had aroused law enforcers' wrath, were tortured at the psychiatric ward. They were kept roped to beds, barely fed and injected with plenty of psychotropic drugs; and Pozdnyakova and Potorochina were directly involved in these practices. At least 19 patients died at the hospital within a year.