In the Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa, the court was supposed to proceed to one of the key stages in the case of possible medical negligence by doctors at the private clinic Odrex – the examination of medical evidence and the hearing of an oncology expert. It was at this stage that the parties were to receive a professional assessment of the accused medics' actions and the compliance of the treatment with medical standards. However, instead of analyzing the medical component, the process switched back to procedural disputes: the defense of one of the accused doctors initiated the transfer of the case to another court. Lawyers for the victim's side call such actions a delay in the proceedings, while the accused himself is conducting an active public campaign on his own social networks, UNN reports.
The criminal proceedings involve doctors from the Odrex clinic, Vitaliy Rusakov and Maryna Belotserkovska, who has already been dismissed from the medical facility. They are charged under Part 1 of Article 140 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – improper performance of professional duties by a medical worker, which could have caused serious consequences for the patient.
According to the investigation, after surgery, the patient Adnan Kivan may not have been prescribed the necessary antibacterial therapy and complications may not have been properly addressed. As a result, sepsis developed, which, according to the expert findings, could have been the cause of the businessman's death.
During the last hearing, the defense of one of the accused doctors filed a motion to refer the criminal proceedings to another court. The lawyers' argument was that one of the representatives of the victim's side worked at the Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa in 2016-2020.
Judge Larysa Pereverzeva decided to send a submission to the Odesa Court of Appeal to resolve the issue of changing jurisdiction. As a result, instead of moving to the examination of medical evidence and hearing the oncology specialist, the trial was again focused on the procedural aspect.
"I object to the granting of the motion; I consider it completely unfounded, as no evidence was provided of a direct connection between the work of lawyer Granin and Judge Pereverzeva. I believe no reasonable grounds were provided for transferring the case to another court. I regard the behavior itself and this motion as a delay of the trial. I ask the court to deny this motion," Oleksandr Dimohlov, a lawyer for the victims, stated during the court session.
This is not the first instance of procedural actions in the case of Adnan Kivan's death that affect the timeframe of the proceedings. Previously, Vitaliy Rusakov's defense had already filed a motion to recuse the presiding judge Larysa Pereverzeva, which effectively put the case on pause. Also, preparatory hearings in the proceedings have been repeatedly postponed due to the failure of the defendant's lawyers to appear. In legal circles, such motions are considered one of the most common tools for delaying the consideration of criminal cases.
Parallel to the trial, one of the accused doctors continues to actively comment on the case in his own YouTube blog. After the last hearing, he published a video in which he presented his own interpretation of the situation.
"I am very glad that finally, finally, in a case considering the death of an oncology patient after the sixth course of chemotherapy, the prosecution has involved an experienced oncology expert," the accused doctor says in his vlog.
People following the development of the "Odrex Case" may get the impression that one of the accused doctors of the Odrex clinic is trying to present the appearance of an expert in the trial as something unexpected or overdue. Although in reality, it is a procedural matter: the medical specialist was involved exactly at the stage of the proceedings when the court moves to the examination of medical evidence. But instead of allowing the court to proceed with the analysis of evidence, the process switched back to a procedural issue due to the defense's motion.
At the same time, the accused himself, in his public appearances, continues to pretend that he does not understand the essence of the charges against him and the procedural order of the case. In his vlog, he repeats the thesis that the indictment allegedly does not contain explanations regarding the treatment protocols he violated.
However, it is precisely for the analysis of these issues that medical materials are examined in court, specialists are heard, and expert conclusions are evaluated. And it was to this stage that the court was supposed to proceed during the last hearing.
A rather paradoxical situation arises where the defense initiates procedural actions that postpone the consideration of the medical component of the case, after which one of the accused publicly blames the prosecutor for involving experts in the process too late.
This looks more like an attempt to create a simplified and emotional picture for the audience, in which the accused appears as a victim rather than a participant in a criminal process. Within this process, the court must establish specific facts, evaluate the actions of the medics, and investigate the causal link between the treatment and the patient's death.
Recall
As UNN previously wrote, the Odrex doctor in his previous video blogs claimed that a possible guilty verdict in his case could allegedly cause a "collapse" of the entire Ukrainian medicine and lead to doctors en masse refusing to treat "complex" patients.
However, experts interviewed by UNN called such statements emotional and emphasized that criminal law provides for the individual responsibility of a specific person, not the "responsibility of the entire system."
The UNN editorial office also drew attention to the fact that in his public appearances, the doctor disclosed medical details of the deceased patient's treatment. Lawyers and medical advocates noted that such actions may contain signs of violation of medical secrecy and the right to privacy. Simultaneously, he allowed himself public criticism of the court and personalized accusations against the presiding judge Larysa Pereverzeva.
All this may create the impression that the high-profile criminal proceedings regarding the death of Adnan Kivan are being turned by the accused Odrex doctor into a tool for personal media promotion.