On June 6, 2020, Zakharchenko, detained in pre-trial detention center No. 1 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, announced the need for a laparoscopic operation.
"Due to the coronavirus epidemic, Zakharchenko was placed in the prison hospital of the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center only at the end of August," a POC representative told RT. “But the doctors who examined him told the commission that the preliminary diagnosis made early by the surgeon in the pre-trial detention center and suggesting surgical intervention was not confirmed during the examination in the hospital.”
The ex-colonel himself, the human rights activist noted, in an interview with the members of the commission, still claims that he continues to experience pain and needs an operation in one of the civilian medical institutions of the capital.
In October last year, the term of imprisonment for Zakharchenko, who was convicted on charges of bribery, was reduced by the Moscow City Court from 13 to 12.5 years. By a court verdict, the ex-colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was stripped of his rank and ordered to pay a fine of 117 million rubles.
Since February 2020, Zakharchenko has become accused in two more episodes of receiving a bribe totaling more than 1.5 billion rubles. At the end of March, he was convoyed to Moscow and placed in jail No. 1 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia.