The upper house of the Russian parliament on Friday approved a bill allowing the release of seriously ill suspects from pretrial detention, following a series of highly-publicized pretrial prison deaths in Moscow.
Under the draft submitted by President Dmitry Medvedev, a list of illnesses qualifying suspects for release is to be drawn up by the Russian Health Ministry.
It also requires the head of a pre-trial detention center to provide the examining magistrate, the detainee and the lawyer with a medical report based on a government-approved examination.
The Russian president was forced into action to reform the country's pretrial detention system after several business executives died while awaiting trial in Moscow.
In November 2009, Hermitage Capital Lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, 37, died of a heart attack in custody after awaiting trial on tax evasion charges for 358 days.
Real estate agency owner Vera Trifonova died in pretrial detention on April 30 after four months in custody on fraud charges. Wheelchair-bound and diagnosed with diabetes and kidney disease, she was kept in custody regardless.
MOSCOW, December 24 (RIA Novosti)
