Russian Investigator Cleared in Prison Death

Wall Street Journal Europe

Russian prosecutors exonerated the lead investigator in the case of Sergei Magnitsky, a hedge-fund attorney who died in jail after what colleagues said was an attempt to expose a massive theft of government funds in 2009.

Acitivists conducting an independent probe of the case called the ruling a whitewash of the case, despite President Dmitry Medvedev’s repeated promises of a full investigation. The handling of Mr. Magnitsky’s death has emerged as a litmus test of Mr. Medvedev’s willingness to investigate corruption in the security services, whose strength and clout have crept throughout the Russian economy.

Russia’s powerful Investigative Committee issued a three-paragraph statement Monday absolving the investigator in the case, Oleg Silchenko, of any blame, saying he had “not allowed” any legal violations in the case.

The prosecutor’s office declined to comment further. Russia’s Interior Ministry, where Mr. Silchenko holds the rank of colonel, also declined to comment. In the past, ministry officials have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the case.

President Medvedev ordered a special investigation into Mr. Magnitsky’s death in 2009.

The human-rights advisory panel tasked with the probe said it believes the case against Mr. Magnitsky was trumped-up, but that a full report won’t be ready until the end of June.

Members of the panel decried the announcement Monday, and promised to release their own report next month. “I think this is another whitewash — I am disappointed but not daunted,” said Lyudmila Alexeyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group. “We will not give up the fight.”

Mr. Magnitsky’s colleagues say he was denied vital medical care by Mr. Silchenko, as the Interior Ministry colonel tried to force him to recant allegations that police and tax officials stole $230 million from the government in the form of a bogus tax refund. Interior Ministry officials have denied that.

Mr. Magnitsky, 37 years old, was held for nearly a year without trial on charges of tax evasion before he died in November 2009 at Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina jail.

Mr. Magnitsky wrote a diary describing his complaints and the squalid conditions, and many of his writings were posthumously published in a Moscow newspaper and on the Internet.

His lawyer and former colleagues allege that he was denied adequate medical care for a pancreatic condition that was diagnosed while he was in custody.

Valery Borshchev, head of an oversight panel that by Russian law monitors the prison system and investigated Mr. Magnitsky’s death, concluded that inhumane treatment — possibly deliberate — led to Mr. Magnitsky’s death.

Mr. Borshchev said correspondence between the inmate and Mr. Silchenko show clearly that Interior Ministry colonel was to blame for the treatment.

“They asked to have him taken to the hospital to do an ultrasound examination, and Silchenko gave a definitive refusal,” Mr. Borshchev said. “That’s a clear violation of the criminal and professional code,” he added

Mr. Borshchev said he also visited the prison after Mr. Magnitsky’s death and spoke with a doctor who said that she “tried several times to transfer Magnitsky to a hospital, but Silchenko interfered.”

Mr. Borshchev said the government may try to blame the death on lower-level prison or hospital officials.

Soon after Mr. Magnitsky’s death, President Medvedev fired or reassigned a handful of medical staff and prison officials.

Mr. Magnitsky’s colleagues say that the conspiracy reaches far higher in the government. Before his arrest, Mr. Magnitsky alleged that tax officials and two investigators of the Interior Ministry had orchestrated the theft of the $230 million through a bogus tax refund that was awarded on Christmas Eve in 2008.

Mr. Magnitsky told police that the Interior Ministry officials got the refunds with the help of stolen paperwork and stamps seized during a raid on his employer, Hermitage Capital Management, a fund that was one of the largest investors in Russia until its U.S.-born founder, William Browder, was denied a visa in 2005.

Mr. Browder said that instead of investigating Mr. Magnitsky’s allegations, Mr. Silchenko arrested Mr. Magnitsky and charged him with the tax fraud.

“The Russian government appears impervious to the damage to its credibility that this type of whitewash is doing,” said Mr. Browder, who now conducts his business from London.

“It will take many years for the Russian justice system to recover any gloss of credibility after this public and corrupt miscarriage of justice,” Mr. Browder said. микрозайм онлайн hairy girl https://zp-pdl.com/get-quick-online-payday-loan-now.php https://zp-pdl.com payday loan