Guardianship officials have dropped their claims against Lyudmila Borzilo
The claim to limit the parental rights of activist Lyudmila Borzilo, a mother of many children, has been withdrawn by the applicant herself, the guardianship and trusteeship authority of the Orlovsky district of the Rostov region.
As "Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote, Lyudmila Borzilo, a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation from the Rostov region, complained that security forces had groundlessly opened a criminal case against her, and officials were trying to place her children in an orphanage for her active civic position. In March, the activist was placed under house arrest, and then forcibly placed in a psychiatric clinic in Rostov-on-Don. During a court hearing on her complaint, Borzilo suffered a miscarriage. On April 15, the court relaxed her preventive measure. The hearing on the lawsuit filed by the guardianship authorities, which demanded that Borzilo's parental rights be restricted, was scheduled for July 7.
Lyudmila Borzilo is accused of disclosing the secret of adoption. She began investigating the work of the maternity hospital after she was informed that her child, born in 2016, had died. The activist is sure that her child was switched and given to a childless couple. However, the criminal case concerns another child, whose story she published online: he had already reached adulthood and knew that he was adopted. According to the publication 161.ru, we are talking about a young man born in 2005.
The guardianship and trusteeship authority of the Orlovsky district of the Rostov region today, June 27, withdrew the claim demanding that Lyudmila Borzilo's parental rights be restricted, the activist's husband Sergei Borzilo and the deputy of the Rostov-on-Don city council from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Natalya Oskina, who represents the woman's interests, told the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot".
The court hearing, previously scheduled for July 7, was cancelled due to the withdrawal of the claim. "The guardianship authorities have withdrawn their claims to limit the rights to the children. There will be no trial. We have achieved that they have withdrawn the claim," said Natalya Oskina.
According to her relatives, mother of many children Lyudmila Borzilo is effectively isolated from communication with the outside world: under the terms of the preventive measure, she does not have access to the Internet and the opportunity to give comments to journalists.
According to Sergei Borzilo, all the formal grounds on which the guardianship authorities tried to limit Lyudmila's parental rights have been eliminated. "She is no longer a single mother: we registered our marriage, and I have registered all our children in my name, plus we are expecting another child. We have moved to a comfortable house, which the Communist Party of the Russian Federation office is helping us rent. As for Lyudmila's health, she has not been recognized as insane and she does not have any psychiatric diagnosis, although they are trying to come up with this diagnosis for her," he said.
The investigative bodies continue to insist on placing Lyudmila Borzilo in a psychiatric hospital. This demand, according to Natalya Oskina, contradicts the conclusion of an independent expert - Professor Vasily Belov, Doctor of Medical and Psychological Sciences, forensic expert and psychiatrist-narcologist.
In his conclusion dated February 10, 2025 (a copy of the document is at the disposal of the "Caucasian Knot"), Belov indicated that the forced placement of Borzilo in a psychiatric hospital has no legal basis. The conclusion of the forensic psychiatric commission of December 6, 2024, to which the investigation refers, does not, in its opinion, meet the requirements of the law, as well as the “criteria of reliability and objectivity.”
Nevertheless, the investigator insists on a re-examination, citing the fact that Borzilo requires the investigation to provide a certificate of adoption of a child born in 2005 by her relative. "He demands that the mother of many children be placed in a mental hospital on the grounds that she insists on checking the legality of the adoption, and there is no evidence of this in the case materials," explained Natalya Oskina.
According to her, if the fact of official adoption is not confirmed, this calls into question the legality of the child's presence in the family and may indicate a crime.
A lawyer providing consultations on the Borzilo case, on condition of anonymity, told the "Caucasian Knot" that in the absence of official registration of the adoption in 2005, a criminal case may be opened against the participants in the possible illegal transfer of the child to the family of Lyudmila's relative, who also contributed to the initiation of the case against Borzilo. He listed six criminal articles that may apply to the actions of the participants in the "deal", including officials.
"If it turns out that the child was received without documents in 2005, without guardianship, on primary documents from a mother who abandoned him in the maternity hospital, this destroys the entire version of the prosecution. The investigator himself may become a defendant in the criminal case. We regard his attempts to send Lyudmila to a psychiatric hospital as a form of pressure and a way to cover his tracks," Oskina concluded.
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