WSJ: Russia Fires Prison Officials Amid Inquiry Into Lawyer’s Death

December 11, 2009

MOSCOW — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev fired several top prison officials after an internal investigation found procedures were violated in the treatment of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who died in a Moscow jail awaiting trial last month, a top official said Friday.

The sackings fall short, however, of the broader inquiry into alleged police and judicial corruption that Mr. Magnitsky’s former colleagues have called for.

“Nobody is looking at why Sergei was put in prison in the first place and why his conditions were made so bad,” said Jamison Firestone, managing partner of the Moscow law firm where Mr. Magnitsky worked. “It’s a total cover-up.”

Mr. Magnitsky, 37 years old, died suddenly last month in Moscow’s Butyrskaya jail, where he was being held before trial on tax-evasion charges. Mr. Medvedev later ordered an investigation into the case, and prosecutors are probing possible negligence and denial of medical treatment.

The Kremlin has declined to comment on Mr. Magnitsky’s former colleagues’ allegations of corruption among investigators.

His death shocked Russia’s business and legal communities and highlighted the frequent use of pre-trial detention in white-collar cases. Business groups say jail is often used as a pressure tactic, an allegation Russian authorities deny.

Mr. Magnitsky’s former colleagues say he was denied adequate medical care and subjected to steadily worsening conditions during his nearly yearlong detention. The colleagues say the tactics were an effort to pressure him to drop allegations of corruption among those investigating his case and to incriminate William Browder, the American-born fund manager with whom Mr. Magnitsky worked. Investigators deny those charges.

Alexander Reimer, director of the Federal Penitentiary Service, told Ekho Moskvy radio Friday that an internal investigation had exposed rule violations in the Magnitsky case, including overcrowded cells and lack of access to showers and exercise. As a result, top officials had been removed and some disciplined, he said.

Mr. Reimer said it was too early to say whether the conditions Mr. Magnitsky was held in contributed to his death, a matter that he said is still under investigation.

But later Friday, a spokesman for the Penitentiary Service denied that Mr. Reimer had linked the personnel changes to the Magnitsky case, Ekho Moskvy reported. The spokesman couldn’t be reached for comment.

While the Kremlin announced the firing of 20 senior prison officials Friday as part of a broader reshuffle at the agency, it didn’t give a reason for the move.

Mr. Magnitsky suffered from a pancreatic ailment diagnosed during the year he was in jail, and his lawyer and former colleagues say lack of treatment likely led to his death. Investigators say the preliminary cause of death was heart failure, which lawyers say could lift potential criminal responsibility from any officials if confirmed.

Thursday, a top Russian court official defended a judge’s decisions to keep Mr. Magnitsky in custody for nearly a year before trial, saying there was no ground to release him.

Mr. Browder, who says he hasn’t been able to get a visa to enter Russia since 2005, denies violating tax rules. He said he and Mr. Magnitsky exposed a $230 million fraud against the Russian government perpetrated by some of the same Interior Ministry officials who are investigating their tax case. Ministry officials deny those charges.

The removals announced Friday include the head of Moscow prisons, as well as officials responsible for jails and prison medical care nationwide. Russia’s prisons are notorious for overcrowding, primitive conditions and allegations of harsh treatment.

“This was long overdue,” said Maria Kannabikh, a member of a Penitentiary Service advisory panel on human rights, noting that such a sweep of top officials was unprecedented in her experience. “Magnitsky was just the last drop.”

— Olga Padorina contributed to this article.

Write to Gregory L. White at greg.white@wsj.com

Original published in The Wall Street Journal.

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