The high-profile court trial regarding the potential medical negligence of doctors at the private Odrex clinic in connection with the death of prominent businessman Adnan Kivan has been ongoing for about 10 months. The current autumn has been marked by further procedural delays: in September, the judicial system faced massive postponements of hearings caused by the defense's stance and procedural nuances.
Chronology of the Trial and Reasons for Delays
The Kyiv District Court of Odesa is considering the criminal case against medical workers Vitaliy Rusakov and Maryna Bilotserkivska. They are accused of improper performance of professional duties under Part 1, Article 140 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. For the first autumn month, presiding judge Viktor Chaplytsky scheduled 13 hearings at once in order to accelerate the process, but less than half of them yielded results — only six meetings took place, while the remaining seven were canceled or disrupted.
Contradictory Data
There is a serious discrepancy in the assessment of the reasons for frequent postponements between the position of the presiding judge and the actions of the defense team. The court officially recognized the failure of Vitaliy Rusakov's lawyers to appear at two consecutive hearings as unjustified, threatening to appeal to the Qualification and Disciplinary Commission of the Bar. At the same time, the lawyers insist on the objectivity of their absence, citing parallel employment in other court proceedings and the need to exercise the legal right to a full defense of their clients.
The Key Expert Phase and the Statute of Limitations Factor
The main intrigue of the judicial investigation remains the transition to interrogating an independent medical expert, who must provide a professional assessment of treatment protocols, medical documentation, and establish the presence or absence of a causal link between the medics' actions and the fatal outcome. Recall that KADORR Group founder Adnan Kivan passed away in October 2024, and charges were brought against the doctors in the fall of 2025. Given the incriminated article of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and the strict timeframes of the statute of limitations for liability, every artificial or procedurally justified delay in the judicial investigation brings the process closer to a critical limit.
