The decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of December 16, 2021 became a real New Year's gift for the 84-year-old pensioner from Ufa Fatkhulla Iskhakov.

For decades, the man tried to get the conviction canceled in the case of attempted triple murder, which he did not commit, but for which he spent 13 years in prison.

Exerted pressure

Earlier, RT said that on the night of May 22-23, 1959, three women were attacked in the village of Bolshiye Karkaly of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

An unknown man burst into the house of Maryam Rakhmatullina and stabbed the girl, her friend and mother.

Then the investigation concluded that the crime was committed by Fatkhulla Iskhakov, who lived in the neighborhood.

According to him, a bloody Maryam ran to him in the middle of the night for help and left drops of blood on the jacket hanging at the entrance to the house.

The women themselves in the dark did not remember the appearance of the attacker.

However, unexpectedly there were witnesses (including Nail Saitbatalov) who allegedly saw a young family man climb into the house of women. 

Iskhakov himself claimed that after the arrest, the operatives beat him and exerted strong psychological pressure, threatening to bring his wife to justice, but he never admitted his guilt.

Iskhakov was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

In prison, he learned about the death of his wife.

Released 13 years later, he still found the strength to start a new family, build a career, but all these years he did not abandon his attempts to achieve justice and prove his innocence.

Unexpected confession

In 1990, for the first time, he managed to get the prosecutor's office to resume the criminal proceedings, but three years later it was terminated.

In 2009, the investigating authorities considered the materials of the check on the application for knowingly giving false testimony by witnesses in the Iskhakov case.

“On August 24, 2012, the prosecutor's office of the Miyakinsky district of the Republic of Bashkortostan received a statement from one of the indicated witnesses, who had been convicted many times, that he had committed a crime for which FB was convicted.

Iskhakov.

In this regard, the earlier decisions on the termination of the criminal case against both the person who confessed and the police officers who allegedly exerted psychological and physical pressure on the witnesses were canceled, ”the materials of the Constitutional Court say.

The one who confessed was Nail Saitbatalov, who was a witness in the case, who shortly before his death confessed to what he had done.

As Saitbatalov said, on the eve of the unfortunate night, Maryam Rakhmatullina refused him, and after drinking, he decided to take revenge on her.

However, in the end, three people were injured.

  • Fatkhulla Iskhakov

  • © Artur Salimov / Mkset.ru

The Investigative Committee of Russia, following a new investigation, concluded that Iskhakov had become a victim of perjury and falsification of evidence.

However, the prosecutor's office has repeatedly sent the resolution of the Investigative Committee for revision.

In 2015, the prosecutor of Bashkiria, Andrei Nazarov, signed an opinion on the need to cancel the sentence and review the criminal case due to newly discovered circumstances.

The papers were sent to the Supreme Court of the Republic, but at the last moment the supervisory authority changed its mind, withdrew the document and the production was stopped.

Iskhakov, together with lawyer Vitaly Burkin, appealed this decision to the Presidium of the Supreme Court of Bashkiria, where they delivered a half-hearted verdict: the prosecutor’s decision to terminate the proceedings was canceled, but the 1959 sentence itself was upheld.

"I will continue to fight"

With this collision, Vitaly Burkin and his client turned to the Constitutional Court of the country.

“We realized that the court and the prosecutor’s office were misinterpreting the criminal procedure law, and in March this year we applied to the Constitutional Court, which fully recognized our case.

I hope that now we will not be faced with bureaucratic obstacles.

The most important thing is that the Constitutional Court recognized the existence of grounds for overturning the sentence, "said the interlocutor of RT.

  • Fatkhulla Iskhakov and lawyer Vitaly Burkin

  • © Photo from personal archive

He hopes that the cancellation of the sentence for Iskhakov will be achieved as soon as possible.

Burkin also noted that the decision of the Constitutional Court is exceptional in the recent history of law enforcement practice.

“This is the first decision of the Constitutional Court, which paves the way for the cancellation of erroneous judgments of the past on new circumstances.

Now, contrary to the position of the prosecutor, it will become easier to reverse such decisions.

This is revolutionary, ”the lawyer said.

According to Iskhakov himself, now lawyers advise him to calm down - now there should be no legal obstacles to the restoration of justice.

“My children are very happy, and I say that I do not feel anything.

For 62 years I have been fighting, but this injustice still does not let me go, and I still do not feel relief.

I have been striving for many years and it seems that I have already achieved half of it.

I will continue to fight, ”the pensioner shared his emotions.

The press service of the prosecutor's office of Bashkortostan, in response to a request from RT to comment on the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, was advised to contact the Prosecutor General's Office.

In turn, they could not promptly comment on the position of the Constitutional Court.