MOSCOW, June 2 (RAPSI, Diana Gutsul) – Russian national Vladimir Klimov, who had been sentenced to 15 years in jail and diagnosed later with cancer of kidney, was granted medical parole a month after his death, RAPSI learnt at the Trans-Baikal Human Rights Center on Tuesday.

The Trans-Baikal Territory Court reversed the decision of the lower court, the Ingodinsky District Court in Chita, which refused to release the dying cancer patient on March 16.

The Ingodinsky court said that “Vladimir Klimov is a danger to society and cannot be considered to have reformed.”

Klimov’s diagnosis – an inoperable kidney cancer – is on the government list of diseases that preclude prison sentences, the human rights center said.

When his sentence was read out, Klimov was in a wheelchair, had speech and memory problems, and had fainting spells.

Klimov died in prison on April 8, three weeks after the court refused to release him. Before his passing, Klimov and his lawyer filed appeals against the Ingodinsky court’s decision. “But the hearing was set for a date a month after Klimov’s death,” the human rights center said.

Klimov’s case has been closed due to his death.