In-Custody Death in Moscow Due to Calculated and Deliberate Neglect and Inhumane Treatment

July 18, 2011

PHR releases first inde­pen­dent med­ical eval­u­a­tion of Mag­nit­sky case  and calls for an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion into lawyer’s death

Physi­cians for Human Rights (PHR), an inde­pen­dent orga­ni­za­tion that uses the integrity of med­i­cine and sci­ence to stop mass atroc­i­ties and severe human rights vio­la­tions against indi­vid­u­als, today announced that cal­cu­lated, delib­er­ate and inhu­mane neglect ulti­mately led to the death of 37-year-old anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky. Mag­nit­sky died fol­low­ing 358 days in police cus­tody in Moscow in Novem­ber 2009. The high pro­file case has focused inter­na­tional atten­tion on human rights abuse and cor­rup­tion in Russia.

PHR’s experts, includ­ing a lead­ing foren­sic pathol­o­gist and a car­di­ol­o­gist and prison health expert, reviewed avail­able doc­u­men­ta­tion in the case at the request of the Mag­nit­sky fam­ily. In the first inde­pen­dent med­ical eval­u­a­tion of the Mag­nit­sky case, the experts expressed con­cern about the pos­si­bil­ity of incom­plete evi­dence col­lec­tion and appar­ent con­tra­dic­tions in the Russ­ian death inves­ti­ga­tions and PHR’s findings.

“From the day he was arrested until the day he died, Mr. Mag­nit­sky received inad­e­quate med­ical eval­u­a­tion and treat­ment,” said PHR’s foren­sic expert pathol­o­gist Dr. Robert C. Bux. “This cal­cu­lated, delib­er­ate and inhu­mane neglect undoubt­edly led to his death and a crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion must be launched lead­ing to arrests and pros­e­cu­tion. Mr. Magnitsky’s fam­ily deserves to finally have some justice.”

In addi­tion to call­ing for a full inter­na­tional, inde­pen­dent review of the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing Mr. Magnitsky’s death, PHR has also called upon the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment to accept respon­si­bil­ity under the UN Anti-torture Con­ven­tion for the tor­ture, med­ical neglect and inhu­mane con­di­tions that caused his death. PHR addressed its appeal for an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion to the UN Gen­eral Sec­re­tary, UN High Com­mis­sioner for Human Rights, Chair of the OSCE, lead­ers of the US Con­gress, and Pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Coun­cil, among others.

“Doc­u­men­ta­tion in this case over­whelm­ingly points towards tor­ture and delib­er­ate med­ical neglect,” said Ste­fan Schmitt, PHR’s Inter­na­tional Foren­sic Pro­gram Direc­tor. “The real ques­tion is why no crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion has been launched against those respon­si­ble for his impris­on­ment and the con­di­tions which led to his death.”

Other sig­nif­i­cant find­ings include:

• Mr. Mag­nit­sky suf­fered pro­longed severe pain, was denied reg­u­lar con­tact with his fam­ily, denied med­ical eval­u­a­tions for his com­plaints, fed meals irreg­u­larly, and kept under inhu­mane conditions.
• There is no record of the col­lec­tion of vit­re­ous fluid or urine or of tox­i­co­log­i­cal test­ing other than for con­trolled substances.

About Physi­cians for Human Rights
Physi­cians for Human Rights (PHR) is an inde­pen­dent orga­ni­za­tion that uses the integrity of med­i­cine and sci­ence to stop mass atroc­i­ties and severe human rights vio­la­tions against indi­vid­u­als. We are sup­ported by the exper­tise and pas­sion of health pro­fes­sion­als and con­cerned cit­i­zens alike.

Since 1986, PHR has con­ducted inves­ti­ga­tions in more than 40 coun­tries around the world, includ­ing Afghanistan, Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, the United States, the for­mer Yugoslavia, and Zimbabwe:

1988 First to doc­u­ment Iraq’s use of chem­i­cal weapons against Kurds
1996 Exhumed mass graves in the Balkans
1996 Pro­duced crit­i­cal foren­sic evi­dence of geno­cide in Rwanda
1997 Shared the Nobel Peace Prize for the Inter­na­tional Cam­paign to Ban Land­mines
2003 Warned of health and human rights cat­a­stro­phe prior to the inva­sion of Iraq
2004 Doc­u­mented and ana­lyzed the geno­cide in Dar­fur
2005 Detailed the story of tor­tured detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guan­tá­namo Bay
2010 Pre­sented the first evi­dence show­ing that CIA med­ical per­son­nel engaged in human exper­i­men­ta­tion on pris­on­ers in vio­la­tion of the Nurem­berg Code and other provisions

For addi­tional infor­ma­tion please con­tact:
Megan Prock, Senior Press Offi­cer
Physi­cians for Human Rights
Cell (USA):     +1 617 510 3417
Tel: +1 617 30 –4237
E-mail:            mprock@phrusa.org

Physi­cians for Human Rights Report on Sergei Mag­nit­sky:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/PHR_Reports/magnitsky-report-july2011.pdf

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