The patient's chances of surviving extradition (lacunae in legislation as a condition of abuse of law)

By scientifically analysing a concrete practical situation, the author considers the problem related to the need in the Russian penitentiary system for a normative legal mechanism to preserve the life of the accused during extradition if their serious illness that impedes detention has been detected. The research has led to the following results: 1) the current legislation of the Russian Federation does not provide for the opportunity to change the measure of restraint not related to the deprivation of liberty for a person during extradition; 2) medical institutions of the penitentiary system do not have the capacity to support the life of an accused detainee suffering from a serious illness that impedes detention; 3) the mechanism for providing medical assistance outside the remand centre exists formally, but does not really cope with emerging situations; 4) the statutory deadline for making a decision to change the measure of restraint for an accused suffering from a serious illness that impedes detention, after extradition, in the absence of a life support system in the remand prison, is more than sufficient to cause irreversible negative consequences for the patient's health; 5) the prosecution authorities and other state bodies of the Russian Federation can not give mandatory guarantees for changing the measure of restraint upon extradition, i.e. there is no legal mechanism for getting out of this closed circle. As a result, during extradition, the accused can be left without qualified medical assistance. Such a situation is critical for persons with serious illnesses and partly serves as one of the bases for escaping justice. The same circumstance underlies decisions of foreign judicial bodies on the refusal to extradite the detained accused persons put on the international wanted list in Russia. On the basis of normative legal acts and other sources, the judicial practice and theoretical provisions reflecting the law-governed processes in the sphere under consideration are generalised, the reasoned provisions and recommendations, proposals for improving the legal mechanism for the extradition of the accused are formulated. In particular, a means of overcoming the arisen barrier with extradition could be to change the measure of restraint to a milder one if there is a serious illness that prevents detention of the accused on the wanted list already at the stage of extradition. In order to meet the requirements of foreign justice bodies that allow to extradite the accused by creating conditions that preclude the threat to their health and to achieve the purpose of criminal proceedings, it is proposed to provide for the opportunity in the law of changing the measure of restraint to a milder one during extradition for health reasons.

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