What initially was a trip to specialize in Russia turned into a nightmare for 34-year-old surgeon Elías Rojas. Since 2019, she has packed suitcases and settled in the far country to study allergology and immunology at the St. Petersburg State Medical University of Pediatrics.
He hadn’t counted on the long-diagnosed sleep disorder to be a reason for him to be behind bars. Rojas, a graduate of the National University, was sentenced to four years in prison on October 5, 2022.
Jail for a drug
According to what was explained by his relatives, he must take a medicine known as modafinilwhich, according to the US National Library of Medicine, is used “to treat excessive sleepiness caused by narcolepsy (a condition that causes excessive sleepiness during the day).”
Namely, Colombians have a condition whereby most of the day they tend to sleep. To treat excessive sleepiness, a doctor prescribed modafinil.
“He did not take pills to Russia. Here he took them normally when he had moments of a lot of work, he did not take them daily, ”said his friend Aarón Zea for EL TIEMPO.
Once I was in that country, He bought the pills online to have them shipped to him from India without knowing that Russian law prohibited them.
“This medication arrived at Russian customs, was checked and was subsequently allowed to pick it up at postal service offices, under the figure of ‘controlled delivery’ to be immediately detained by the authorities and then charged with committing a crime,” Zea pointed out.
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They detained him in 2021 for ten months. It was not until the end of that year that he was released “since he was unable to prove the crime of which he was accused (smuggling)”. However, as the judicial inquiries persisted, in October 2022 the court sentenced him to four years for possessing 26.1 grams of modafinil.
“With this accusation, the medical prescription from Colombia (Country of origin) has not been valued at all, nor has the medical information that proves the free commercialization in Latin America of said drug, evidence that demonstrates an important mitigation of the responsibility that is imputed to him, or at least a diminished responsibility”, explained his sister Helena Rojas, in a letter sent to the Ambassador of Colombia in Russia.
A) Yes, They insist that the Russian authorities have not accepted the medical documents that prove that Rojas suffers from the disorder and must be medicated, despite the fact that all the papers were apostilled before the Foreign Ministry -certification of authenticity-which were known by this newspaper.
In addition, they denounce that the translator has been limited to Rojas, for which reason it has been difficult for him to communicate with his lawyer and carry out other legal proceedings.
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What does the sentence of the Colombian doctor say?
From the document shared by his relatives, a Russian court found him “guilty of having committed illegal acquisition and storage without the purpose of sale of psychotropic substances, on a large scale.”
The 13-page sentence indicates that, for Russia, he acted criminally for buying the tablets as it is a prohibited substance there.
Although the Colombian defended himself, indicating that he suffers from the chronic disease, that he needs the medicine and that he did not know Russian legislation, the court validated the testimonies of the detectives and people present the day he claimed the drug at the customs office. and the exams practiced.
For this reason, his family cries out for urgent help. Through a letter, the Colombian Embassy in Russia assured them that it requested a visit at the beginning of 2023 in order to learn about the case.
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“We ask the Colombian government to establish a direct communication channel with the Russian government for a direct negotiation for the release of Elías,” concluded Zea, his friend, in a chat with EL TIEMPO.
The Colombian doctor has sent them some letters, in which he says he is calm and waiting for what follows in his process. The four-year prison sentence will be appealed, according to what his relatives said.
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SEBASTIAN GARCIA C.
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