For more than seven months, the court in the criminal case of medical negligence by doctors of the Odrex clinic, whose actions may have caused the death of businessman Adnan Kivan, could not move to the key stage of the trial – the examination of evidence. Hearings were postponed, the defense filed challenges and numerous motions, and the trial on the merits was repeatedly delayed. Now, however, the case has entered an active phase: the court is examining evidence, and the prosecution continues to add it, reports UNN.
However, this pace of the trial does not suit one of the accused – the scandalous Odrex surgeon Vitaliy Rusakov. In one of his numerous video blogs about the death of his famous patient Adnan Kivan, he stated that the presiding judge, Viktor Chaplytskyi, should schedule court hearings in the case no more than once a month.
"Why does Judge Viktor Chaplytskyi hear serious and especially serious crimes once a month, but my case daily?" – said the accused.
We assume that this pace of the trial may not suit the defense precisely because it narrows the opportunities to use procedural mechanisms that lead to delays in the trial. If the case is heard without long breaks and artificial pauses, the risk of its closure due to the expiration of the statute of limitations significantly decreases.
"The usual handling of cases is that court hearings for serious and especially serious crimes are scheduled once a month. Here we are considering a crime of minor gravity. And an extremely high density of hearings is noted," – stated one of the accused surgeon's lawyers during the hearing.
Earlier, experts who analyzed the course of the criminal case into the death of Adnan Kivan had already pointed out the risks of delaying the trial. In particular, the President of the All-Ukrainian Association of Retired Judges, Denys Nevyadomskyi, emphasized that each unfounded postponement of the trial brings the criminal proceedings closer to the expiration of the statute of limitations. Consequently, it may deprive society of an answer to the main question – are the accused Odrex doctors guilty of the death of Adnan Kivan?
At the same time, the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine imposes on the court the obligation to ensure the trial is conducted within a reasonable time. That is why the regular scheduling of court hearings in itself is not a violation of the parties' rights, but on the contrary – it corresponds to one of the fundamental principles of criminal procedure.
In this situation, a simple question arises – if the accused are confident in their innocence, shouldn't they be the most interested in having the court examine all the evidence as quickly as possible and make a decision? After all, it is the court's verdict, not the length of the process, that can finally put an end to the story and confirm their innocence.
That is why the criticism by Rusakov and his lawyers of the intensity of the trial creates the impression that a swift examination of the evidence may confirm violations of medical standards during the treatment of Adnan Kivan and establish a causal link between the doctors' actions and the patient's death.