Jailed ex-governor Sergey Furgal tests positive for COVID-19

The Khabarovsk territory’s jailed former governor, Sergey Furgal, has been hospitalized in the medical unit of Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina remand prison after testing positive for COVID-19, RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday, April 7.

According to Furgal’s lawyer, his client tested positive for the coronavirus while still in custody in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison. 

“A positive covid test came back, which was taken by Sergey Furgal on the morning of April 6. We will not see him for the next two weeks, as he is isolated and will be under the supervision of doctors,” Furgal’s lawyer Mikhail Karapetyan told the Russian state news agency TASS on Tuesday. 

Furgal’s lawyer plans to file a petition on changing the preventive measures against his client. “The illness causes concern among the entire team of lawyers, since earlier Furgal told us himself that he would have lung problems in the event of illness,” Karapetyan explained.

According to the business newspaper Kommersant, Furgal’s other lawyer, Sergey Groza, had previously tested positive for COVID-19. Recently, Groza had been making regular visits to the Lefortovo prison, where he studied the case materials in the same office as Furgal, other lawyers, and state investigators. Despite Groza’s diagnosis, the prison administration didn’t prevent him from continuing to familiarize himself with the case materials, the newspaper notes.