Russia says attorney died from lack of medical aid in jail, activist blames beating by guards
Russian investigators admitted Monday for the first time that a Russian lawyer who accused officials of corruption died in jail due to a lack of medical treatment _ but a rights activist said the death came after a brutal beating by prison guards.
Sergi Magnitsky, a 37-year-old lawyer who worked for a large U.S. investment fund, died in prison in November 2009 after the pancreatitis he developed there went untreated. He had been arrested by Interior Ministry officials after he had accused them of using false tax papers to steal $230 million from the state.
Magnitsky’s case is being scrutinized by human rights activists and potential Western investors as a gauge of the Kremlin’s commitment to addressing corruption and allowing an independent legal system. Several prison officials were fired but no one has been charged either for his death or in the alleged tax fraud.
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Russia blames medics for Hermitage lawyer death
Reuters
Russian investigators, probing an affair that has shaken the confidence of foreign investors, said on Monday that poor medical care was to blame for the death in jail of the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
Magnitsky, a 37-year-old lawyer for Hermitage Capital, once Russia’s biggest equity fund, died of heart failure in November 2009 after around a year in prison, sparking worldwide outrage.
He had earlier testified against Russian interior ministry officials during a tax evasion case against Hermitage. The hedge fund had accused the officials of embezzling $230 million in tax refunds from the state budget.
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Russia blames prison over top lawyer’s death
Russian investigators on Monday for the first time acknowledged that medical neglect was responsible for the death in pre-trial detention of Western investment fund lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
The 37-year-old Hermitage Capital investment fund attorney’s death in November 2009 in a holding cell at Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina sparked outrage among international rights groups and drew condemnation from Western states.
His case came to symbolise both the perils facing Western businesses in Russia and the seeming gap between President Dmitry Medvedev’s more liberal rhetoric and his actual reform accomplishments.
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Russia to Prosecute Officials Linked to Magnitsky’s Death
Bloomberg
Russian prosecutors plan to charge officials linked to the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer for Hermitage Capital Management Ltd. who died in a Moscow prison in 2009 after almost a year in pre-trial detention. Officials will face criminal prosecution for refusing timely medical treatment to Magnitsky, who was 37 when he died of heart failure, including on the day of his death, Russia’s Investigative Committee said today on its website.
“The failure to provide Magnitsky with adequate medical treatment was a direct cause of his death,” the committee said, citing the results of a medical probe.
The announcement came less than two months after President Dmitry Medvedev said all guilty parties in Magnitsky’s “tragic” death should be punished. The lawyer said he was abused and denied medical care to force him to drop allegations of a $230 million tax fraud by Interior Ministry officials.
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Dutch MPs impose sanctions on under-fire officials, but Moscow bids to arrest dead lawyer’s colleague
Europe’s relations with Russia have been handed another test, as Dutch lawmakers voted unanimously to slap sanctions on Russian officials on the ever more notorious Magnitsky list.
In The Hague, 150 Dutch MPs voted in favor of sanctions against 60 officials implicated in the prosecution and death in disputed circumstances of Sergei Magnitsky.
Magnitsky was a lawyer with British hedge fund Hermitage Capital and claimed to have exposed how Russian officials had embezzled $230 million of public funds.
But on the same day that Magnistky supporters were clapping themselves on the back a Moscow court issued an arrest warrant for Ivan Cherkasov, Magnitsky’s old colleague.
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The Top 10 Reasons You Should Support S. 1039
Khodorkovsky & Lebedev Communications Center
When people think of President Barack Obama’s “reset” policy with Russia, the first things that come to mind are the deferral of the missile defense shield in Eastern Europe, a new nuclear arms reductions treaty, or maybe even the friendly hamburger summit with his contemporary President Dmitry Medvedev.
While there are no shortage of arguments disputing the advantages and failures of the reset strategy, when it comes to human rights, the most impactful policy proposal comes not from the White House or State Department, bur rather an item of legislation conceived last year by Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-Md). The draft law aims to become a model for the way governments can emphasize values and combat human rights abuses through the creation of specific disincentives targeted at those responsible. How does it work? Instead of punishing citizens who also suffer under these officials, the law would focus on visa restrictions of certain officials, and halt their use of Western financial institutions to launder ill-gotten funds.
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Reset Regret: Moral Leadership Needed to Fix U.S.–Russian Relations
The discussion about democracy, human rights, and the rule of law has careened through at least three phases in U.S. relations with Russia, each one resulting in sometimes jarring shifts in Washington’s approach to Moscow.
In order to reaffirm America’s interests, when dealing with Russia, the U.S. should concentrate on the values of freedom and justice. The Administration needs to stop its policy of “pleasing Moscow” and instead add pressure on Russia to start a “reset” of its own policies that currently disregard human rights, democracy, and good governance. The U.S. should deny visas to corrupt Russian businessmen, examine their banking practices and acquisitions, and target Russian police and prosecutors who fabricate evidence, and judges who rubber stamp convictions, which is what the bipartisan S. 1039 “Justice for Sergey Magnitsky” bill aims to do.
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In Tit-for-Tat, Russia Wants to Blacklist Foreigners
With the United States considering sanctions on Russian officials implicated in the prison death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, the Foreign Ministry has turned to the State Duma with a blacklist of its own.
But instead of punishing other countries for human rights abuses against their own citizens, the ministry would blacklist foreigners deemed to have violated the rights of Russian citizens.
Under a bill submitted to the Duma on Tuesday, blacklisted foreigners would be barred from entering Russia, while their assets in Russian banks would be frozen and they would be banned from conducting business deals in Russia.
“This is our acceptable answer to the actions of the West, including the U.S. State Department, which drafts certain blacklists of Russia citizens,” said Igor Lebedev, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party’s faction in the Duma, Interfax reported.
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Browder to fight on despite moves to wind down his case
Bill Browder, the head of the Hermitage Capital, is to carry on fighting for justice in the Sergei Magnitsky case even as a criminal case against his UK-based hedge fund seems to be winding down.
Kommersant yesterday reported that documents relating to Browder’s criminal case for alleged tax evasion were sent to the head police department of Moscow’s central administrative district and Browder was removed from the international wanted list.
These changes are believed to be linked with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s order to look into the case against Magnitsky, Hermitage Capital’s lawyer who had died in pre-trial detention over a year ago. Magnitsky was held on remand in 2008 on tax evasion charges after attempting to defend Hermitage, once Russia’s top foreign investor, against the same charges.
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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
