Jewish doctor arrested in Naples for fraud: “They persecute me because I fled from Moscow”
Russia, Israel, Italy. Yes in Naples the triangulation of a closed judicial affair that led to the arrest of a luminary of orthopedic medicine with a double passport, Russian and Israeli in fact. A story that has for more than one reason for the paradox, since Dr. Isak Pichkhadze, at the age of 71, he ended up in a cell in the “Poggioreale hell” after setting foot at Capodichino airport with an accusation that seems to have been artfully constructed by the Moscow government: scam. And now the case, from being a judiciary, risks becoming a diplomat as well.
While in the world international intelligence is still on the hunt for dangerous terrorists, narcos, supporters of totalitarian regimes and assassins of all kinds, the elderly doctor who has revolutionized orthopedic care methods saving thousands of lives is being sought by Interpol since 2019 on the basis of a crime that a scientist of his caliber could never commit: a fraud for just over two thousand euros, which, moreover, would have been committed in Russia, but of which details and particulars are not provided by the judicial authorities in Moscow.
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The fact is that the 71-year-old, who has just set foot in Italy for a holiday that began in Naples, is blocked by the border police. Checking his documents, a red light lights up from the terminal indicating Isak Pichkhadze’s name in the list of wanted by Interpol. Although he has never given up on keeping the passport of the Russian Federation, the doctor has lived in Israel since 2009, where anyone – a Jew – can find a homeland based on the principle of Aliyah, the sacred right to return to Israel. It thus proceeds to its transfer to the Poggioreale prison. Here the researcher is detained for two long days, despite finding the advanced age and despite being in poor health conditions.
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His daughters contact the lawyer immediately Ismaele Brancaccio, expert in criminal matters and international extraditions. The lawyer moves immediately, and manages to collect – in the hearing to validate the arrest, held last Thursday before the delegate of the Naples Court of Appeal of the eighth section – a first, important success: while validating the arrest, the judge releases Pichkhadze and assigns him to House arrest in a hotel, entrusting its surveillance to the police.
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Tuesday will be a day for the fate of the Israeli doctor-researcher: during the chamber hearing the day after tomorrow in which the Court of Appeal is called to decide whether to start the extradition procedure in Russia, the professional will be heard by the judge. To whom he will explain that he is persecuted, who in 2009 – at the height of an anti-Semitic campaign staged in Russia – was threatened by the government authorities of the Kremlin not to leave Moscow. He did not obey the diktat, and thus the accusation of fraud would have been built, however laughable for the entity (120 thousand rubles, equal to two thousand euros). «It is an evident persecution by Russia – declares the lawyer Brancaccio – A state in which the judiciary does not enjoy any independence from political power. Should extradition be ordered, Pichkhadze will be sent back to Moscow to meet certain death ». The Israeli consulate in Rome is also dealing with the case, with the consul general at the forefront Hanoch Amedi.