Court gives immunologist 11 years for sexual violence against minor

Immunologist Jevgenijs Nikiforenko has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for sexual violence against a patient under 16, in a separate case from the one in which he received a 13-year sentence, LSM reported.

Riga District Court announced its abbreviated judgment on November 5. It also imposed two years of probation supervision. The prosecutor had requested the same sentence and does not plan to ask the court to prepare a full judgment.

According to the indictment, Nikiforenko knew the patient was under 16 and used her trust in him as her family immunologist. He told her she needed gynaecological tests, asked her to remove all her clothes and lie on an examination couch, then sexually assaulted her by digitally penetrating her vagina.

In the earlier case, Riga Regional Court found Nikiforenko guilty of seven crimes involving sexual violence against patients and sentenced him to 13 years in prison, five years of probation supervision and a seven-year ban on working in healthcare.