Convicted of killing an infant in Kaliningrad had their conviction overturned

The court overturned the conviction of doctors Elena Belaya and Elina Sushkevich, convicted for the murder of an infant in a maternity hospital in Kaliningrad. The relevant information was published on the website of the First Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction.

The case was sent for a new consideration to the Moscow Regional Court, which will decide whether to cancel or retain the preventive measure. Both medics remain in custody for the time being.

In November 2018, a woman was admitted to Maternity Hospital No. 4 in Kaliningrad, who gave birth to a boy weighing about 700 g at an extremely early stage of pregnancy. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation found that the acting head doctor of the maternity hospital Belaya and an anesthesiologist-anesthesiologist-animatologist of the regional perinatal center Sushkevich decided to kill the child in order not to spoil the statistics.

It was later reported that the infant required an expensive drug to keep the baby alive and Belaya allegedly decided not to waste the resources of the maternity hospital. The investigation believed that she instructed to administer a dose of magnesium sulfate to the baby, and to write in the delivery history that the baby was stillborn.

The medical community rose to the defense of the medics. In particular, the president of the medical community union "National Medical Chamber" Leonid Roshal said that "everything is not so simple".

In December 2020, the Kaliningrad Regional Court acquitted the doctors. At the same time, the IC stated that their guilt was proven. The prosecutor's office appealed the decision, and in May 2021 the court overturned the acquittal of Belaya and Sushkevich.

Then in September 2022, the Moscow Regional Court sentenced Belaya and Sushkevich to 9.5 and 9 years in prison, respectively. They were also banned from practicing medicine for three years. In December 2023, the Supreme Court dismissed cassation appeals against the doctors' sentence. Later, on October 2, 2024, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation sent the case for reconsideration.