MOSCOW, August 26 (RAPSI, Diana Gutsul) – A court in the city of Yekaterinburg had ruled to free Alexander Izyurov, 60, on the grounds of his serious illness, lawyer Alexey Bushmakov told RAPSI on Friday.

The penal colony, where Izyurov is serving his term, has petitioned for his release.

“In the course of the proceedings the doctor in charge explained that the 60-year-old man’s health condition was serious and deteriorating,” Bushmakov said. The prosecutor’s office supported the petition, and Izyurov should be released from the colony as soon as the judgement becomes legally effective, according to the lawyer.

Bushmakov believes that the court ruling was influenced by a prompt reaction of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). “This June ECHR said it will prioritize examination of Izyurov’s application. Immediately after that the man was subjected to an examination, which became the grounds for a forensic medical commission to find it appropriate to release him from the penal colony,” the lawyer said.

Izyurov has been serving his prison term of 15 years since 2009. In 2013 he was diagnosed with incurable kidney cancer and, according to Bushmakov, independent experts have reported inadequacies in his treatment.

Last November a court in the Sverdlovsk Region upheld Izyrov’s prayer for discharge. However, the prosecutor’s office challenged this decision in the regional court and could persuade it to overturn the lower court’s ruling. The latter judgement made human rights activists to turn to ECHR in Izyurov’s interests relying on Article 3 (as concerned his medical treatment in the penal colony).