Jurors in murder case against Kaliningrad neonatologists say judge pressured them to deliver guilty verdict
Four jurors in the case against Elina Sushkevich and Yelena Belaya, two Kaliningrad doctors charged with murdering a newborn baby to keep their hospital’s official infant mortality rate low, have said the judge for the case pressured them into returning a guilty verdict, the website Medvestnik reported on Wednesday, citing Sushkevich’s lawyer.
The jurors made the allegations in testimonies they gave on April 17 during an appeal hearing. According to the lawyer, the jurors said that during the proceedings, Judge Andrey Vyunov would go into their break room and try to persuade them that the defendants were guilty. In addition, the lawyer said, one of the four jurors was stopped by police “on false pretenses” while traveling to court on the trial’s final day, causing the person to miss the final jury session.
The Court of Appeals will announce its verdict on April 26.
