MOSCOW, February 21 (Itar-Tass) — On February 27 the Moscow City Court will review the legitimacy of returning to prosecutors the criminal case against athlete Rasul Mirzayev, accused of throwing a fatal punch at student Ivan Agafonov, 19.
"The cassational appeal by the defense against returning the case materials to prosecutors for elimination of the violations will be reviewed at the Moscow City Court at 14:20, Moscow time, on February 27," spokeswoman for Moscow's Zamoskvorechye court Yevgeniya Pazukhina told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
On February 15, the district court ruled to meet the injured parties' petition and returned the case to prosecutor's office.
Representative of Agafonov's family Oksana Mikhalkina said the relatives of the victims believe the final expert examination - that looked into the cause of the death -- carried out in St.Petersburg was illegitimate, because the relatives had been advised too late.
Prosecutors later sent the case back to the Investigative Committee, which toughened the charges against Mirzayev from "causing death by negligence" /punished by up to 2 years in prison/ to "malicious infliction of grave harm to health which resulted in the victim's death by negligence" /up to 15 years in prison/.
On February 13, the Zamoskvorechye court released Mirzayev under a 100,000-rouble bail. The Moscow City Court overturned the ruling the next day, granting the prosecutor's petition.
On February 16, Moscow's Presnya court extended Mirzayev's arrest to May 17.
The fatal incident occurred in Brodnikov Pereulok in central Moscow on August 15, 2011. Student Ivan Agafonov was rushed to hospital after a punch delivered by Mirzayev near the Garage nightclub and died several days later without regaining consciousness.
Two expert examinations were carried out within the case, which showed that the death had been caused by a fall onto asphalt after a powerful blow. The media broadly covered the nightclub incident causing a public stir. Mirzayev turned himself in to police the next day after the incident.
The latest bail ruling developments mirror the story that happened six months ago, when the Zamoskvorechye court initially ruled to release the mixed fighting champion on bail, but the next day, the Moscow City Court overturned the decision and on August 24, the Zamoskvorechye court sanctioned the athlete's arrest.