The prosecutor's office is demanding that this verdict be rescinded. The prosecution insists that Novoselov's case be re-examined for the third time.
The relatives of deceased persons, whose bodies were illegally taken to Germany, also supported this demand. These people have been demanding the return of such bodies for several consecutive years, but to no avail.
In 2001 the authorities started investigating the activities of Vladimir Novoselov, chief of the Novosibirsk regional forensic-medical bureau, that is, after it became known that over 50 human bodies had been taken to Germany. Those bodies were subsequently received by German scientist Gunther von Hagens, who heads a private plastination institution in Heidelberg. The West perceives von Hagens as an avant-garde artist, who has gained a reputation for his shocking anatomic exhibitions featuring dismembered human bodies.
The prosecutor's office established that Novoselov had collected bodies, subsequently delivering them to the German scientist. However, Novoselov's guilt wasn't proved in the course of two trials (November 2003 and July 2004, respectively). The courts didn't find any corpus delicti each time, clearing Novoselov on all counts. In their verdicts, the judges noted that preliminary-investigation divisions had submitted insufficient evidence of Novoselov's guilt.
Nonetheless, RIA Novosti has just learned that the Novosibirsk regional court's board of appeals did rescind the afore-said verdict.
Novoselov's case is to be examined by another judge some time from now.
