33 years later, Karnataka High Court discovers case was filed by a dead man

Former Moscow municipal deputy Alexey Gorinov appeared in a Moscow City Court hearing via video link from a penal colony in Altai Krai, where he claimed he may have been poisoned. The court, however, upheld the refusal to reopen the criminal case against him. Gorinov, a political prisoner, alleged that prison officials were neglecting his requests for medical care.

He had been convicted in 2022 for proposing a moment of silence at a municipal council meeting to remember victims of Ukraine's military aggression, and later received an additional sentence in a separate case. His lawyer, Yekaterina Tertukhina, sought to reopen the case, citing a U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention decision that identified 11 violations in his case.

Gorinov has suffered serious health problems in prison, including tuberculosis, pneumonia, and bronchitis. He has been placed on preventive watchlists, subjected to constant checks and sleep deprivation, and labeled as a potential escape risk, arsonist, suicide risk, extremist, and terrorist.