Posts Tagged ‘gulevich’
Hopes Raised As Court Frees Entrepreneur
The country’s courts may finally be heeding orders from the Kremlin to end a crackdown on the business community, judging by the recent surprise ruling to not jail gravely ill entrepreneur Natalya Gulevich after her conviction on fraud charges.
The judiciary has come under increasing pressure from rights activists, the media and the government to cease its harsh treatment of business owners after a string of high-profile deaths in pretrial detention — most notably that of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009.
Many courts around the country have stubbornly resisted, but Gulevich’s unexpected release suggests that change may finally be under way. Still, many other ill suspects remain under arrest, and it is unclear whether they will receive the softer treatment that President Dmitry Medvedev has promised.
Gulevich was convicted of large-scale fraud late Monday by Moscow’s Tagansky District Court.
While the verdict was widely expected, the sentence was decidedly less so. Gulevich got off with a three-year suspended sentence and a fine of 1 million rubles ($32,000), as well as an order to pay back a bank loan of 590 million rubles ($26.5 million at the time) that sparked the case in 2008.
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Laws to rein in Russia’s pretrial detention system are ignored
Over the last 18 months, President Dmitry Medvedev has signed two laws meant to rein in Russia’s notorious pretrial detention system, an institution often used to extract bribes and enforce widespread corruption. He has been trying to make the country more governable and conducive to business.
Medvedev sought to discourage police, prosecutors and judges from throwing businesspeople into jail on false charges, often in return for bribes from competitors bent on destroying a rival.
But the system quickly proved itself more powerful than the president. The laws were ignored. Yet another of Medvedev’s promised reforms would go unkept, and Russians would remain fearful of their courts and police.
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Russia transfers gravely ill inmate to hospital after Strasbourg ruling
A gravely ill inmate, Natalia Gulevich, whose kidneys and bladder recently failed was transferred on Tuesday from a pretrial detention center to a hospital after the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights issued a ruling, her lawyer, Anna Stavitskaya, said.
“Gulevich was today transferred to a hospital! The EU’s persistence [Strasbourg court ruling] and a kidney failure was necessary for this! Without it our officials believed that the individual was healthy,” Stavitskaya said on her Facebook page.
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Record Bail Set in Magnitsky-Style Case
Seemingly thumbing its nose at Kremlin attempts to ease penalties for suspects of white-collar crime, a Moscow court has agreed to release a seriously ill woman from pretrial detention — if she posts an all-time record bail of $3.3 million by Monday.
The Kremlin did not comment Tuesday, but the Public Chamber said it would seek to have businesswoman Natalya Gulevich, whose kidneys are failing and bladder has stopped functioning, transferred from pretrial detention to a hospital, RIA-Novosti reported.
Gulevich’s supporters compare her to Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who also was accused of white-collar crimes and died in pretrial detention after not receiving adequate medical treatment in November 2009, 11 months after he was detained.
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Seriously ill prisoner told to cough up $3 million – or else
A gravely ill woman being held at a pre-trial detention center in Moscow has been told she must pay a record sum of $3 million bail before she can be released.
The news comes after the inmate, 52-year-old entrepreneur Natalia Gulevich, filed a complaint to the Strasburg Court of Human Rights demanding justice. According to Russia’s new legislation, gravely ill people must not be kept in pre-trial detention.
After considering Gulevich’s appeal, the court ruled that the initial decision to arrest her was illegal, but demanded that the businesswoman paid the immense sum of $3 million in bail money. This would be the biggest bail ever paid in Russia.
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Court Orders Release Of Ill Businesswoman
A gravely ill businesswoman held in pretrial detention in Moscow may be released within days after the city court ruled on Wednesday that her arrest had been extended illegally.
Although the decision is in line with Kremlin-backed laws easing the terms for the release of ill suspects accused of economic crimes, it came after months of legal squabbles.
The Moscow City Court on Wednesday ordered the Tverskoi District Court to revise its Oct. 4 decision to keep Natalya Gulevich in detention until Nov. 7, her lawyer told The Moscow Times.
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