MOSCOW, October 4 (Itar-Tass) — Moscow's Zamoskvorechye court named the medics who will carry out a new expert examination in the case against sambo champion Rasul Mirzayev, accused of delivering a fatal punch at a student last year.
An expert of the Russian Public Health Ministry was among the candidates and the prosecutors and the injured parties offered no objections. For his part, Mirzayev's lawyer Alexei Grebensky requested recusal of the expert from Hospital # 1 arguing that the latter could have personal interest in the outcome of the trial /it was to GKB 1 that Agafonov was rushed after Mirzayev had struck him - eds Itar-Tass/.
Judge Andrei Fedin left the composition of the medical commission unchanged. "The court has no reasons to assume that the specialist has personal interest," Fedin stated.
The trial of the high-profile criminal case began in February and was suspended at the stage of the arguments of the parties, when the judge offered to reopen the investigation. He ordered a new, 6th expert examination with the view of establishing causal relationship between Mirzayev's punch and Agafonov's death or refuting it.
The expert center under the Justice Ministry, initially charged with the task, was unable to issue a conclusion saying the questions asked by the court were outside of its competence.
In this connection, the expert examination was handed over to personnel of the Russian forensic center under the Public Health Ministry. However, it, too, said it lacked necessary specialists: neurosurgeons, anesthesiologist-resuscitation experts, a specialist in sport medicine, and forensic experts in cranial injuries. The center thus requested the court to consider inviting the above specialists to the expert commission.
Mirzayev, a sambo world and Russian champion, is accused under Article 111, Part 4 /"malicious infliction of serious harm to health which resulted in the victim's death by negligence"/. It envisions a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.
On August 15, 2011, Mirzayev and Agafonov had a row near the Garazh nightclub at around 04:00. Mirzayev, "using professional skills and sport training, deliberately delivered one pointed strike with his left hand in Agafonov's face," the case materials said. The student fell and hit his head of the asphalt. In hospital, he slipped into a coma and died three days later. The defendant pleaded not guilty.