Russia drops charges against doctor in Magnitsky case
Agence France Presse
Russia on Monday said it had dropped charges against one of two doctors implicated in the death in prison of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, citing the statute of limitations.
“The Investigative Committee has decided to drop the criminal case against doctor and laboratory assistant at the pre-trial detention centre, Larisa Litvinova,” the statement said.
It cited “the elapsing of the statute limitations”, saying a new law had come into force since the investigation began.
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Case closed in Russian jail death
Charges have been dropped against a doctor in the case of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Russian jail amid claims of torture and neglect.
Larisa Litvinova was one of two doctors facing charges. The case was dropped because the statute of limitations had expired, reports said.
Mr Magnitsky, who worked for a Western investment fund, was detained after accusing officials of tax fraud.
He died after “deliberate and inhumane neglect”, a report found.
His high-profile death at the age of 37 was taken up by human rights groups as one of the most glaring examples of corruption and prison abuse in modern Russia.
He had suffered from pancreatitis and gallstones and had been found with broken fingers and bruising to his body, the Kremlin’s Human Rights Council said in July 2011. There were, it said, grounds to suspect that he had died as a result of a beating.
‘Inadvertent act’
Dr Litvinova was the head doctor at Butyrka maximum security prison in Moscow where Mr Magnitsky died in November 2009.
In a statement his investment fund, Hermitage Capital, said he had been directly under her care from 7 October 2009 and she had “refused all medical treatment” to him.
Hermitage Capital said that news of the charges against Dr Litvinova being dropped was conveyed to Sergei Magnitsky’s mother in a legal document from the Russian Investigative Committee’s lead investigator, Marina Lomonosova.
“The crime committed by [Dr Litvinova] is an inadvertent act for which the maximum sentence does not exceed three years. Currently, the crime… is considered by law as a crime of insignificant severity, for which the statute of limitation constitutes two years,” Ms Lomonosova said.
Hermitage Capital said that the decree releasing the jail’s head doctor from criminal liability was “the latest example of the reluctance within the Russian government to hold anyone accountable for Sergei Magnitsky’s death”.
A second prison doctor, Dmitry Kratov, is still facing negligence charges. hairy woman микрозаймы онлайн https://zp-pdl.com/apply-for-payday-loan-online.php https://zp-pdl.com/best-payday-loans.php займ на карту срочно без отказа
Magnitsky Doctor Cleared of Charges
Prosecutors have dropped negligence charges against a doctor at the pre-trial detention facility where 37-year-old lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died because the statute of limitations has expired, Hermitage Capital, reported on Monday.
Larisa Litvinova was charged with negligence contibuting to Magnitsky’s death.
Magnitsky died after almost a year in the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center in Moscow in November 2009. He had been arrested on tax evasion charges just days after accusing police investigators in a $230 million tax refund fraud.
Magnitsky was serving as outside counsel for Hermitage Capital when he uncovered the alleged fraud.
Magnitsky had been diagnosed with pancreatitis and gall bladder disease. Prison officials said he died due to heart failure and toxic shock.
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Russian party leader, rights activist doubt Magnitskiy case will be investigated
Interfax
The discontinuation of criminal proceedings against Butyrskiy remand centre doctor Larisa Litvinova in the case of the death of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergey Magnitskiy is unacceptable, Russian opposition party Yabloko leader Sergey Mitrokhin has said, as reported by the Russian news agency Interfax on 9 April.
Mitrokhin said: “This is unacceptable not only because this is a loud case but also because this is the government’s crime against a citizen. If such cases are closed so easily, then this means that criminals are simply being shielded.”
Mitrokhin added: “Objective justice does not exist in our country. If interests of large officials are involved, then the justice system works for them and this case, most likely, will not be investigated and none of the guilty will go to jail since officials are involved in it.”
Meanwhile, a member of the presidential human rights council and head of the National Anti-Corruption Committee Kirill Kabanov said that the Magnitskiy investigation was being wrapped up and that certain people were hoping to close the case when Putin takes the presidency.
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Russia drops charges in lawyer’s prison death
Russia’s top investigative body said Monday it has dropped charges against a doctor suspected of negligence in the case of a prominent lawyer who reported official corruption in Russia, then died in custody while suffering from untreated pancreatitis.
The lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, had accused Interior Ministry officials of using false tax documents to steal $230 million from the state. He was imprisoned for tax evasion in 2008 and died in custody in November 2009.
A private investigation concluded Magnitsky was severely beaten and denied medical treatment in prison, and it accused the government of failing to prosecute those responsible.
Magnitsky worked for Hermitage Capital, an investment fund owned and run by U.S.-born William Browder, who has since been barred from Russia as a security risk.
On Monday, Russia’s Investigative Committee dropped the negligence charge against Dr. Larisa Litvinova, citing a two-year statute of limitations in such probes.
Hermitage Capital sharply criticized the decision, calling it “the latest example of the reluctance within the Russian government to hold anyone accountable” for Magnitsky’s death.
“In dropping charges against Ms. Litvinova, the Russian investigators have refused to acknowledge that Sergei Magnitsky had been tortured in custody, a crime that has a 10-year statute of limitations,” the investment fund said in a statement.
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Russia: Criminal case against Magnitskiy jail doctor reportedly dropped
Interfax
The Hermitage Capital Fund says that the Russian Investigations Committee has stopped criminal proceedings against Butyrskiy remand centre doctor Larisa Litvinova, who is accused of causing the death of the fund’s employee, [lawyer] Sergey Magnitskiy, out of negligence.
“Discontinue the criminal proceedings against Larisa Litvinova over her offence of causing death out of negligence as a consequence of the improper performance of her professional duties due to the expiry of the statute of limitations,” Hermitage Capital quoted an excerpt from an investigator’s decree in a message that Interfax received on Monday [9 April].
The quoted document also noted that “Litvinova’s crime was an act of culpable negligence of a minor degree”.
“Litvinova committed shortcomings in offering medical assistance to Sergey Magnitskiy, which led to his death out of negligence,” the decree said.
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UK Businessman Fears Danger From Russia after ‘Police Leak’
A senior executive from Hermitage Capital fears his life may be in danger after his home address in London was leaked to officials involved in the pre-trial detention death of Hermitage lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
Newly released court documents suggest Soca, the UK’s Serious Organized Crime Agency, passed the information to the Interior Ministry, who forwarded it to an official accused of blocking Magnitsky’s lawyers from visiting their client before his death, the Guardian reported Saturday.
The official is on the list of 60 people who would be banned from entering the US under proposed legislation to punish those involved in the 37-year-old lawyer’s death.
Magnitsky died in a detention center in 2009 after being refused medical treatment. He had been jailed on charges of tax evasion after accusing Russian officials of a $230 million tax fraud.
The executive whose address was revealed, Ivan Cherkasov, has been the subject of death threats from Russia, and he is also facing criminal accusations and an arrest warrant from an Interior Ministry official implicated in the tax fraud. Cherkasov says he and his family are now in danger of retaliation.
Senior Hermitage staff have received numerous death threats since Magnitsky’s death, and Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism unit has offered protection against potential Russian hit men.
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Why Kremlin Kleptocracy Affects U.S. Interests
Over the past year, Washington readily threw its support behind opposition movements in Libya and Syria. That was an easy decision since neither Libya nor Syria was a U.S. ally. When it came to Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, who was a U.S. ally, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama eventually did withdraw its support from him, but only when his position turned uncertain.
President-elect Vladimir Putin is not “our son of a bitch,” to use President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s expression. He is no friend of the West, and few people around the world admire his authoritarian kleptocracy. Yet Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are committed to a “reset” in U.S.-Russian relations. Moreover, despite mass protests of the past few months demanding systemic change, Putin is not wobbling. Moreover, the protests might even make Putin more accommodating on Syria, Iran, supply routes to U.S. troops in Afghanistan and other issues where Washington seeks Russia’s cooperation.
Leading Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney was recently critical of Obama’s reset policy toward Russia. But aside from resuscitating outdated, Reaganite Cold War rhetoric, Romney had nothing to offer on U.S.-Russian relations. It’s a pity because unlike during the Cold War era, the United States — and Romney, the business executive, in particular — could put effective pressure on Russian officials to help combat the country’s largest kleptocrats.
To begin with, the United States could take the lead in imposing worldwide sanctions on the so-called Magnitsky list, a gang of Russian government officials who have been implicated in the wrongful imprisonment and death of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer for Hermitage Capital.
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Financier fears for life over ‘UK police leak’ to Russia
British police face questions over the apparent leaking of a businessman’s London home address to Russian officials implicated in the suspected murder of a prominent lawyer.
Newly disclosed court documents suggest the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) passed confidential information to staff at Russia’s interior ministry, who are accused of being involved in the death of Sergei Magnitsky.
Magnitsky, 37, was working for a British-based investment fund, Hermitage Capital Management, when he exposed a tax fraud worth £144m, the biggest in Russian history. After accusing interior ministry officials of fraud, he was detained in Moscow’s Butyrskaya prison, where he died in November 2009 after having had his medication withdrawn. The Kremlin’s human rights council claims he was tortured and probably beaten to death.
Now a senior employee of Hermitage – who has already received a number of death threats from Russia – claims his family has been placed in danger by the apparent collusion between UK police and Russian interior ministry officials.
In the two years since Magnitsky’s death, senior Hermitage staff have received death threats that prompted them to contact Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism unit, SO15, who offered security in case they were targeted by Russian hitmen operating in London.
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To learn more about what happened to Sergei Magnitsky please read below
- Sergei Magnitsky
- Why was Sergei Magnitsky arrested?
- Sergei Magnitsky’s torture and death in prison
- President’s investigation sabotaged and going nowhere
- The corrupt officers attempt to arrest 8 lawyers
- Past crimes committed by the same corrupt officers
- Petitions requesting a real investigation into Magnitsky's death
- Worldwide reaction, calls to punish those responsible for corruption and murder
- Complaints against Lt.Col. Kuznetsov
- Complaints against Major Karpov
- Cover up
- Press about Magnitsky
- Bloggers about Magnitsky
- Corrupt officers:
- Sign petition
- Citizen investigator
- Join Justice for Magnitsky group on Facebook
- Contact us
- Sergei Magnitsky
