14:05, 14 August 2019

Traumatologist testifies in favour of Benyash

Mikhail Benyash. Photo by Svetlana Kravchenko for the Caucasian Knot

The doctor, interrogated at the trial, said that he saw no bite traces on the hands of the policemen, for attacking whom the Krasnodar lawyer, Mikhail Benyash, is accused.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Mikhail Benyash was accused of assaulting policemen; the court allowed him to be released on bail. On August 6, the Leninsky District Court of Krasnodar agreed to re-interrogate a witness, the policeman, Denis Pronskiy, and the traumatologist, who was the first to examine the policemen. The victims, Yegor Dolgov and Dmitry Yurchenko had traumatized themselves after a medical examination, and the traumatologist can confirm that he had seen no bite traces, Mikhail Benyash has explained the reason for his petition.

On September 9, 2018, Mikhail Benyash was detained in Krasnodar together with participants of an unsanctioned rally against the pension reform. According to Mikhail Benyash, he was beaten after his detention. He served 14 days of his administrative arrest in the case on disobedience to a policeman, but on December 19, the Krasnodar Territorial Court cancelled a decision on the Mikhail Benyash's arrest.

On August 13, the Leninsky District Court interrogated the traumatologist, Nazir Hapsirokov, who read out the data from Dolgov's medical card and explained that, judging by the entry he made in the medical card, Yurchenko and Dolgov had "just bruises." The prosecutor asked if there were still bite traces or not. The doctor replied that if there were no bite traces in his card, then there weren't any of them; he confirmed that bite traces could appear later.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 14, 2019 at 10:54 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.