Pubdate: Tue, 21 Dec 2004
Source: Moscow Times, The (Russia)
Page: 3
Copyright: 2004 The Moscow Times
Contact:  http://www.moscowtimes.ru/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/903
Author: Nabi Abdullaev

ANTI-DRUG POLICE CONVICT VETERINARIAN BEFORE JUDGE

VLADIMIR -- Anti-drug police in the Vladimir region announced the 
conviction of a veterinarian for selling a powerful anesthetic before a 
judge delivered her verdict, dealing a new blow to the much-maligned 
reputation of the Federal Drug Control Service and raising new questions 
about the independence of the courts.

Judge Yelena Melkova of Vladimir's Frunzensky District Court had just left 
the room to prepare her verdict last Thursday when Svetlana Shashilova, the 
spokeswoman for the local branch of the drug control service, started 
handing out a statement that said veterinarian Olga Tanayeva, 27, was 
guilty of selling ketamine.

Shashilova did leave a blank space in the text for journalists to fill in 
with the actual verdict. Melkova came back four hours later and handed 
Tanayeva a suspended three-year sentence.

"The most awful thing is that it was not an impartial court that punished 
me, but those who were interested in the outcome," Tanayeva said by 
telephone from Vladimir on Monday.

Tanayeva was charged in January after a colleague asked her to sell 
ketamine to a client who turned out to be an undercover anti-drug agent. 
Ketamine was banned after the Agriculture Ministry inadvertently failed to 
include it on a list of approved veterinary drugs in 1998. The ban -- which 
was lifted this year -- led to a series of investigations into 
veterinarians, who continued using it in their practices.

Shashilova could not be reached Monday, and an official in her task force 
said that no one in the office could comment on the statement that she had 
passed out.

But Shashilova told Izvestia that she had jumped the gun because she 
believed the case against Tanayeva was so solid.

Tanayeva said she had a copy of a statement that was later released by the 
drug control service and explained that Shashilova had distributed her 
statement on her own initiative and in doing so had violated instructions 
from her superiors.

Tanayeva's defense lawyer, Yevgeny Chernousov, said the scandal will 
greatly help Tanayeva in her appeal, which he planned to file later Monday. 
"This press release was a blatant example of pressuring the court to 
convict my client," he said.
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