Defence in case on Sochi explosions recalls petition on defendant's medical treatment

At today's court session, the advocate of the former militiaman Ilya Galkin, who is accused of committing a series of explosions in Sochi in 2008-2009, and who suffers, according to the latest examination, from a mental disorder, has recalled his earlier petition asking to send his client to forced treatment at a mental hospital.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that, according to investigators, the former militiaman Ilya Galkin and Mikhail Denisenko, an employee of the local TV company, committed, in the period from June 2008 to February 2009, nine explosions in different districts of Sochi. Later, the examination defined that Galkin suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and was not able to perceive the nature and danger of his actions for the public. On October 3, during the court session, Galkin's advocate petitioned to direct his client for mandatory treatment in accordance with the revealed diagnosis.

Besides, the advocate asked to appoint Nadezhda Galkina - his client's mother - to be his legal representative. Today, she was already present at the session in that capacity, the "Interfax" reports.

The advocate has explained his decision to recall his petition on sending Galkin to mandatory mental treatment by the fact that should his client be placed to the mental hospital in Rostov-on-Don, there could be problems with his convoying to judicial hearings in Krasnodar.

"If I keep insisting on such a petition, I don't know whether they have vacant beds at the hospital, and what the procedure of his convoying could be. I'm afraid the case will be protracted," the RIA "Novosti" quotes the advocate named Anisimov as saying.

Today, the court also questioned Natalia Isaeva, a psychiatric expert of the Krasnodar Territorial Mental Hospital, who participated in the first series of Galkin's examinations. In her view, these examinations were conducted with high quality and by competent professionals, but "at a rapid pace." She also noted that during Galkin's examinations involving psychiatrists from Krasnodar "he did not come into contact, while specialists from the Serbskiy Institute managed to contact him." This, according to Isaeva, "might in some degree" influence their results.

"Our (Krasnodar) experts haven't revealed any violations in Galkin's sphere of thinking, which were pointed to by specialists from the Serbskiy Institute. We noticed no inadequaces in his behaviour and thinking," said the expert.

"The conclusion says that he has long suffered from schizophrenia... But if he had been sick before his age of 23-25, he should have been noticed by psychiatrists," said Isaeva and added that the latest examination did not specify, when Galkin got sick - at school or while serving in the militia.

Anisimov, in his turn, answering Isaeva's observations, offered to invite the experts from the Serbskiy Institute, who carried out the last third examination, for questioning.

Currently, Galkin is kept in a one-man cell, the "Live Kuban" reports with reference to the advocate.