Posts Tagged ‘Litvinova’
Russia drops charges against jail doctor over death of anti-corruption lawyer
As relatives of Sergei Magnitsky commemorated what would have been the Russian lawyer’s 40th birthday on Sunday, it emerged that authorities had dropped a negligence case against one of the doctors who treated him in prison.
Mr Magnitsky, a lawyer for the investment fund Hermitage Capital, died in a Russian jail in 2009 after he was accused of perpetrating a fraud he claimed to have uncovered. He died after being refused proper treatment for a pancreas condition. An official report suggested he was beaten before he died. But only two medical staff have been charged with any crimes and the Russian authorities have even begun a posthumous prosecution of Mr Magnitsky.
His lawyers say Larisa Litvinova, the doctor in charge of Mr Magnitsky at the Butyrka prison hospital, refused him basic tests and treatment that could have saved his life. She had been charged with negligence, but the case has been dropped, leaving one other prison doctor as the only person facing charges in the case. “Over two years after he died, not a single person has been prosecuted for torture, murder, or the fraud that he uncovered,” William Browder, the head of Hermitage Capital, said.
Mr Browder is pushing for the US and other countries to adopt the Magnitsky Act, which would impose financial sanctions and deny visas to 60 Russian officials believed to be complicit in the case.
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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
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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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Magnitsky’s mother accuses investigators of repression
Natalya Magnitskaya, the mother of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a detention facility in Moscow in 2009, has asked the Interior Ministry to stop summoning her for questioning because it is causing her suffering, the press service for Hermitage Capital said.
“Yesterday, Sergei Magnitsky’s mother sent a statement to the Interior Ministry saying the Interior Ministry has been subjecting [Sergei Magnitsky’s] closest relatives to emotional torture for the past six months, trying to cause them to sign statements refusing his rehabilitation,” the press service for Hermitage Capital told Interfax.
The source said the complaint, which is addressed to S. Solovyov, the head of the Interior Ministry’s Investigations Unit for the Central Federal District, states that “the illegal investigative measures are causing me and the closest relatives of my son emotional suffering.”
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Presidential council to discuss complaint about pressure on Magnitsky’s relatives
Presidential human rights council will discuss a complaint from Sergei Magnitsky’s relatives about the Interior Ministry’s pressure and will try to help them, council member Kirill Kabanov told RIA Novosti.
“We will hold the council’s working group meeting soon,” said Kabanov emphasizing that the human activists will try to influence the situation and help the relatives.
Magnitsky, who was accused of corporate tax evasion in relation to his work for the investment fund, died in an investigative isolation ward in November 2009. According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, his death was caused by cardiovascular insufficiency.
The criminal case against Magnitsky was terminated by the Investigative Committee due to his death, but the Prosecutor General’s Office decided to resume the investigation. Magnitsky’s relatives have demanded that the case against him be dropped.
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Magnitsky was tortured in prison – Hermitage Capital
Hermitage Capital investment fund on Monday released an in-depth and documented report accusing Russian officials of the false arrest, torture and pre-trial death of its auditor Sergei Magnitsky and the subsequent cover-up by Russian officials.
“Most shockingly, this report proves that nearly every high level Russian official in the law enforcement system publicly lied to cover up the fact that he was systematically denied medical care for a life threatening illness,” Hermitage Capital said in a press release.
Magnitsky was arrested and jailed without trial in November 2008 and died in police custody a year later after being denied medical care. The 37-year-old lawyer had accused tax and police officials of carrying out a hefty $230-million tax scam.
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