Experts questioned the legality of the refusal to release a resident of Kabardino-Balkaria with tuberculosis.

In early July 2025, the AIDS Center issued a certificate stating that Fargiev was unfit to serve his sentence in a prison colony. The case materials indicate that he has advanced tuberculosis and stage 4B HIV infection, which is characterized by severe secondary diseases. Fargiev did not participate in the appeal hearing because he is undergoing treatment at a rehabilitation center in Krasnodar. It should be noted that on June 5, 2025, the Nalchik City Court sentenced Fargiev to three years in a maximum-security prison for threatening to use violence against a Ministry of Internal Affairs officer in Prokhladny.

"The defendant can appeal to the court again"

By law, the question of release due to illness is decided by the court, noted Anna Karetnikova, a former member of the Moscow Public Monitoring Commission and former leading analyst for the Moscow Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service. "The court makes a decision based on the totality of the circumstances. The only circumstance the court is obliged to consider is the conclusion of a medical commission, conducted in accordance with the established procedure, that the person is unfit to serve the sentence because he or she suffers from a disease included in the list approved by RF Government Resolution No. 54 "On the medical examination of convicts nominated for release from serving a sentence due to illness." According to the court ruling, although the illnesses the convict complains of are included in this list, a commission in the prescribed form was not convened, since a certificate from the AIDS center is not a commission decision. Therefore, the defendant can request this commission and, on this basis, reapply to the court," she told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Karetnikova emphasized that health status cannot serve as the sole basis for parole. "Health status can be one of the main arguments for this, but it is not binding on the court, again, without a decision by a commission convened in the prescribed manner," she stated.

Regarding the detention of people with tuberculosis in prisons, according to Karetnikova, the Federal Penitentiary Service strives to identify and treat it. "Tuberculosis is practically the only disease for which prisoners are tested everywhere. But if it is latent tuberculosis, then the person can even be held in the same room with other people. "And only if active tuberculosis is diagnosed is a person taken to a tuberculosis dispensary and then to a medical correctional facility," she concluded.

A lawyer, who spoke to a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent on condition of anonymity, noted that the court's refusal to change Fargiev's sentence violates his right to health care and adequate medical care. To remedy Fargiev's situation, the lawyer emphasized, it is possible to appeal the decision in court.

"The medical correctional facility does not always comply with the standards adopted in civilian hospitals – there may be a shortage of specialists or medications," the source noted.