The Serbsky Institute in Moscow has completed its assessment of Yury Dmitriev and on 19 January 2018 he was transferred to the city’s Butyrka Prison, says his defence attorney Victor Anufriev.

The official results of the investigation of Dmitriev’s psychological, sexual and psychiatric condition are not known. His attorney says that the assessment has not yet been signed and it would be improper to draw any conclusions.  “The deadline to complete the assessment is ten days,” said Victor Anufriev. “They could write it tomorrow or in a week’s time. I do not receive the results, they are passed to the court. The usual practice is that someone comes from the court and collects the text.”

Apart from carrying out a psychiatric assessment of Yury Dmitriev, the Serbsky Institute was also supposed to assess nine photographs from the case materials. Dmitriev’s defence do not know what has happened in that respect.

“Officially it is not known whether they agreed to assess the photographs or not. If they did not, I am sure that the prosecutor’s office will continue to pursue its goal of imprisoning Dmitriev at any cost and find some grubby organisation that will give them the results they want,” commented Victor Anufriev. “Incidentally, I submitted a complaint to the Supreme Court of Karelia about the decision of the [Petrozavodsk City] Court to carry out this assessment. There are enough assessments and specialist conclusions in the case materials on which to reach a verdict. In my view, the prosecution is simply abusing its powers.”

According to Anufriev, Yury Dmitriev should be escorted back to Petrozavodsk. It is not known when the next hearing in his trial will take place. His defence attorney plans to come to Petrozavodsk and keep an eye on the situation there.

On 20 January members of the Moscow Public Oversight Commission visited Butyrka and meet with Dmitriev. He was in an ordinary cell, reported Eva Merkacheva, deputy head of the commission, and not in the psychiatric hospital at Butyrka. This could mean that he is considered normal and not a danger to society.

Dmitriev was in an optimistic mood and told members of the commission that he had been treated with politeness throughout the 18 days of his examination.

“They measured my blood pressure morning and night,” said Dmitriev. “I’m ready to fly into space despite my 62 years. Parcels were handed on to me, some of them from quite unknown people. My thanks to them! There was not a single day when I didn’t receive a parcel. When the limit for food was reached they accepted books and photographs. I even got my favourite Belomor cigarettes.”

7×7 – Horizontal Russia
22 January 2018