Today the Moscow City Court made a decision to release a gravely ill Russian business woman, Natalya Gulevich, from police custody provided that she pays a bond of 100,000,000 rubles (approximately 3,400,000 USD) before 7 November 2011, reports Radio Svoboda.
Natalya Gulevish was charged with fraud. Allegedly, as the director of her company, she took a loan from Nomos-Bank and failed to pay it back. Her defense attorneys claim that Gulevich was a victim of “raider attacks.” Thus, allegedly the affiliates of Nomos-Bank seized the buildings owned by her company and located in the center of Moscow with a total market value about 120,000,000 USD. As a result she was arrested and has been held in police custody in Moscow for almost a year, regardless of the direct prohibition of the Russian law to hold suspects charged with economic crimes.
At the time of her detention, Gulevich suffered several serious chronic illnesses such as neurogenic bladder, which requires a catheter, spinal hernia, and high blood pressure which creates the risk of a stroke. Additionally, her uterus has been removed. Doctors claim she needs treatment in a specialized hospital. However, neither her serious illnesses nor the requirements of Russian law prohibiting the detention of suspects charged with economic crimes could stop Russian courts from extending Gulevich’s detention in custody several times.
In the beginning of October 2011 Gulevich’s attorneys lodged an application with the ECHR after which the ECHR urgently ordered Russia to implement an interim measure in this case, namely to release Gulevich immediately. The ECHR also asked Russia to explain why Gulevich was taken into custody after the entry into force of the Russian law prohibiting detention of suspects charged with economic crimes.
As a result of the ECHR order to apply urgent interim measures in the Gulevich case, the Moscow City Court delivered a decision today in which it held that Gulevich could be released from police custody upon the payment of a bond of 100 million rubles by 7 November. Taking into account that 4 November is a public holiday in Russia and that 5 and 6 November is the week-end, Gulevich would have to deposit this amount not later than 3 November in order to be released. Thus, the court gave her only one day to fulfill this condition, which is unrealistic, taking into account that her husband is a military retiree with a pension of 11 thousands rubles per month.
Given the above, the Moscow City Court decided to take formalistic approach towards implementation of the ECHR’s interim measures by showing its readiness to release Gulevich and admitting that her detention is illegal, but at the same time setting such conditions for her release that are impossible to fulfill in practice.
Earlier the Court has ordered Russia to implement similar interim measures in the case of Aleksanyan v. Russia. However, Russia failed to comply promptly with the Court’s order which resulted later in the applicant’s death (for more information about this case see my post of 4 October 2011).
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