Austrian Medical Officers Found Guilty in Death of Chechen Asylum Seeker
The Austrian media has reported that a district court found two doctors guilty in the death of a Chechen asylum seeker in a detention center.
Earlier, we reported the death of 35 year old Chechen asylum seeker Zelimkhan Isakov in a detention center in Vienna, Austria while he was awaiting his deportation to Russia on September 27, 2012. The Josefstadt District Court in Vienna handled the case on March 17. The court documents proved that Zelimkhan Isakov asked for medical help between September 14 and 27 by mentioning pain in his chest at the beginning and all over his body later. However, no doctors asked for even an ECG, because they considered his complaints as a way to prevent his extradition. At the end, Zelimkhan Isakov passed away on September 27 as the result of a heart attack. The court’s judge Margeratha Richter considered this attitude as unintentional manslaughter. She ordered 150 days imprisonment for the two doctors, but then switched it into a pecuniary punishment: 150 thousand Euro (100 Euro per day). The guilty doctors will also bear the judgement costs.
Zelimkhan Isakov’s death didn’t stop the extradition procedure and his family was sent back to the Russian occupied Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. For this reason, the victim’s wife couldn’t participate in the hearing, however, her sister had a chance to talk briefly. “My sister doesn’t ask for compensation. She wants the culprits to be punished,” she said.
*Text was written by Waynakh Online and edited by Michael Capobianco