Posts Tagged ‘Hermitage’
“No Place to Retreat to”
Vedomosti
The criminal case relating to the death of Hermitage Foundation lawyer Sergey Magnitskiy, who died in a prison hospital on 16 November 2009, is beginning to acquire specific outlines. The Investigations Committee has charged Dmitriy Kratov, deputy chief of the Butyrka holding center, with negligence and prison doctor Larisa Litvinova with causing death by negligence.
There were definitely more people who made decisions and issued orders, so the list of players in the case, which consists of two individuals, looks too much like “scapegoating.” Nevertheless yesterday’s [18 July] statement by the Investigations Committee should be regarded as a big step forward given all the strength of the resistance from the guardians of the honor of uniforms and judges’ robes, who persistently attempted to prove the legality of Magnitskiy’s imprisonment and incarceration. It is a big step forward, but only the first step. Investigators are promising to call to account “other officials irrespective of the posts that they have held previously and currently.” The progress of the trial will demonstrate how possible this is given the current system of relations between the branches of power.
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Accused doctors are ‘scapegoats’, Magnitsky’s boss claims
As the Russian media reported criminal charges against two prison doctors supposedly responsible for Sergei Magnitsky’s death, his old boss is not wholly convinced.
“While I’m sure these doctors were sadistic sociopaths for what they did to Sergei, I’m sure they were taking orders from investigators higher up,” Bill Browder told The Moscow News, minutes after a Moscow court turned down a request from Natalia Magnitskaya, the dead man’s mother, to get tissue samples for independent examination.
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Report on Lawyer’s Death Provides a Chance for Medvedev to Redeem Himself
Even by the dubious standards of the Russian system of justice, the Sergei Magnitsky case is an outrage. Magnitsky died in a Moscow prison in November 2009 after 11 months in custody. He was arrested by senior police officials who had fraudulently seized control of assets of the U.K.-based Hermitage investment fund and had thereby secured a $230 million tax refund – the largest in Russian history. Magnitsky, an attorney, was working on behalf of Hermitage to recover the assets. In an appalling reversal of fate, Magnitsky himself was accused of tax fraud.
On 5 July President Dmitry Medvedev heard a report from his Council on Civil Society and Human Rights. The report covered a broad range of topics, from terrorism in the North Caucasus to children’s rights. Buried in the middle of the report, which was orally presented to Medvedev by council members, were their findings on the Magnitsky case. Their material was explosive. Not only did they confirm that Magnitsky had been illegally detained and denied medical treatment, they also revealed that immediately before his death he had been beaten by eight guards in the medical facility to which he had been transferred – and where he had again been denied medical treatment. This final tragic detail had not previously been known. It is an almost unbelievably cruel footnote to an already horrific tale.
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Jail Officials Targeted Over Magnitsky
Investigators said Monday that a criminal case has been opened into two prison officials in connection with the death of Hermitage lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and that they face possible charges of negligence.
Larisa Litvinova, former medical official at Moscow’s Butyrskaya pretrial prison, faces up to three years in prison if charged and convicted of unintentional manslaughter by breach of professional duty, the Investigative Committee said.
Her former superior, Dmitry Kratov, may be jailed for five years if charged with negligence that resulted in death, committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said, Interfax reported.
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Russia Starts Probe Into Lawyer’s Death
Russian investigators on Monday launched a criminal investigation of two prison officials—one of them a doctor—in the case of the 2009 death of a hedge-fund lawyer who was jailed after alleging officers of Russia’s Interior Ministry took part in a $230 million tax fraud.
Human-rights activists hailed the probe as a possible sign of progress, noting that it was the first time government officials specifically blamed anyone since Sergei Magnitsky’s death in a Moscow jail.
More criminal cases are possible, said Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia’s Investigative Committee, the government’s leading investigative organ.
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Probe launched against Russian jail officials
Russian investigators launched a criminal probe Monday against two prison officials for their suspected role in the death of a jailed lawyer, who claimed to have uncovered a $230 million tax fraud by corrupt Interior Ministry officers.
This is the first time Russian officials have specifically identified anyone in relation to the death of Sergei Magnitsky in November 2009 after the pancreatitis he developed in prison went untreated.
But the announcement has done little to appease the lawyer’s supporters, who accuse the authorities of failing to investigate the real culprits.
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More officials to be sued over Magnitsky death
The Russian presidential civil society and human rights council does not rule out that more law enforcement and state security officials could be prosecuted over the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in custody, National Anticorruption Committee head Kirill Kabanov said on Monday.
The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case against two former pre-trial detention center staff Larisa Litvinova and Dmitry Kratov.
Litvinova, who was Magnitsky’s doctor, is charged with causing the lawyer’s death by neglecting to render professional care. Her superior at the detention center, Kratov, is charged with negligence.
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Russia Says It Will Try Jail Doctors in ’09 Case
New York Times
Twenty months after a 37-year-old lawyer died in pretrial detention after repeatedly requesting medical care, the authorities on Monday announced that criminal cases have been opened against two former prison doctors in connection with his death.
The announcement came as lawmakers in several countries threatened to impose sanctions on officials linked to the prosecution of the lawyer, Sergei L. Magnitsky, who had been drawn into a feud between Russian officials and his employer, Hermitage Capital, an investment fund based in London.
Russia’s top investigative body said the two suspects in Mr. Magnitsky’s death were Dr. Larisa Litvinova, who oversaw Mr. Magnitsky’s treatment during the last weeks of his life; and Dr. Dmitri Kratov, formerly the chief medical officer of Butyrskaya Prison.
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Two Arrested In Magnitsky Case
It has been reported this afternoon that the Investigative Committee has charged two former prison doctors in connection with the death of Sergei Magnitsky, the Hermitage Capital lawyer who died in pretrial detention in 2009, after being denied treatment for pancreatitis. Since Magnitsky’s death a barrage of criticism has been launched against the Kremlin for its failure to investigate the death of the corruption-fighting lawyer, who claimed to have discovered a $230 million tax fraud case that involved high-ranking officials.
Some will greet the news of the arrests as a positive step forward, hot on the heels of the Russian Human Rights Council’s report on the affair, published ten days ago, which concluded that Magnitsky may have been beaten to death. The report’s apparent acknowledgement of official wrongdoing in the matter has been hailed by Hermitage Capital as an admission of guilt.
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