The Lviv court acquitted the suspect in the fraud case known as "Doctor P."

The Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Lviv acquitted Andrii Sliusarchuk, known as "Doctor Pi," who was sentenced in 2014 to 8 years in prison for medical malpractice that resulted in patient deaths, forgery of educational documents, and large-scale fraud. The relevant verdict was issued by the court on November 14.

According to the case materials, Andrii Sliusarchuk posed as a prominent neurosurgeon and Doctor of Medical Sciences, although he had no higher education whatsoever. He gained popularity in the early 2000s by claiming to possess a supposedly phenomenal memory, as he could recite 30 million digits of Pi after the decimal point. This earned him the nickname "Doctor Pi." During the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko, he became an advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine. Additionally, Viktor Yanukovych awarded him a state prize in the field of education.

In 2005, Andrii Sliusarchuk took a position as a professor in the Department of Information Systems and Technologies at the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Prospective Technologies of Lviv Polytechnic National University. He used forged educational documents, including a duplicate diploma from the Russian State Medical University of the Federal Agency for Health Care, a diploma of Candidate of Medical Sciences from the Moscow Medical Academy, a Doctor of Medical Sciences diploma, and a retraining diploma from St. Petersburg State University.

In June 2006, while at the Brody Central District Hospital, he informed the medical staff that he would operate on one of the patients at the request of their relatives. The patient was hospitalized due to a closed traumatic brain injury. After the surgery, the patient died without regaining consciousness.

Furthermore, in June 2008, the parents of a minor patient with a traumatic brain injury and concussion asked Andrii Sliusarchuk to operate on her at the Chortkiv District Hospital. He performed a left-sided craniotomy and removed part of the brain tissue. Subsequently, the child died.

That same year, Sliusarchuk performed surgery at the Slavuta Central Hospital in Khmelnytskyi region, attempting to remove a brain tumor from a patient. A few days later, the patient also died in intensive care. He conducted another operation at the Chortkiv District Hospital that same year at the request of the patient's wife, who had been diagnosed with severe toxic-hypoxic encephalopathy and cerebral coma.

The man died the day after the surgery. In 2010, Sliusarchuk operated on another minor patient from Ternopil region, who also died immediately after the operation. Investigators accused the pseudodoctor of promising to cure hopelessly ill patients and find medications for them abroad.

In 2011, the Lviv newspaper "Express" published an investigation accusing Andrii Sliusarchuk of forgery of educational documents. Following this, on November 14, 2011, he was arrested in Kyiv. Throughout the time, Sliusarchuk remained in pre-trial detention and attempted suicide twice. In 2014, the Sykhiv District Court found him guilty of five counts of illegal medical practice, two counts of negligent homicide, fraud, and forgery of documents. He spent four years and seven months in prison, where he was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment.

In 2016, he was released under the "Savchenko Law." In 2017, the Ternopil Regional Appeal Court overturned the verdict against "Doctor Pi" and sent the case for retrial. In court, Andrii Sliusarchuk did not acknowledge his guilt and claimed that the case was fabricated by Russian special services in collusion with Ukrainian law enforcement. Sliusarchuk stated that he had a conflict with the Ukrainian authorities and that the media created an artificial biography for him.

On November 14, 2024, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Lviv declared Andrii Sliusarchuk innocent and acquitted him due to the absence of a crime in his actions and insufficient evidence. The court found that investigators improperly handled copies of important documents and violated the rights of the accused. According to the court, the fact that Sliusarchuk posed as a neurosurgeon constituted an abuse of people's trust rather than fraud.

The court acquitted Sliusarchuk of charges of document forgery, illegal medical practice, negligent homicide, and fraud. The court denied the victims' claims for moral and material damages. The verdict can be appealed.