Telegraph: Russia called to probe police role in Magnitsky death

April 23, 2010

Mr Mag­nit­sky, who rep­re­sent­ed Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment, the hedge fund run by Bill Brow­der, died in prison after being held for 358 days with­out tri­al on tax eva­sion charges.

He had pre­vi­ous­ly tes­ti­fied about the involve­ment of Russ­ian police offi­cers in the alleged theft of $230m (£150m) of tax­pay­er funds. An inves­ti­ga­tion was launched into his death fol­low­ing pub­lic out­cry, but its focus was on the fail­ure of the On Thurs­day, Lyud­mi­la Alek­seye­va, the founder of the inde­pen­dent Moscow Helsin­ki Group, called for an inquiry into the police offi­cers alleged to have brought “the crim­i­nal case against Mr Mag­nit­sky and used tor­ture against him”.

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The Wall Street Journal: Russia Criticized Over Jail Death Probe

April 23, 2010

Two promi­nent Russ­ian human-rights advo­cates Thurs­day accused author­i­ties of drag­ging their feet in the inves­ti­ga­tion of the jail­house death in Novem­ber of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a lawyer work­ing for a U.S. invest­ment fund.

Valery Bor­shchev, head of an inde­pen­dent advi­so­ry com­mis­sion legal­ly empow­ered to mon­i­tor human rights in prison, said pros­e­cu­tors and oth­er inves­ti­ga­tors haven’t respond­ed as the law requires to a scathing report on Mr. Mag­nit­sky’s case his pan­el issued in December.

That report accused inves­ti­ga­tors, judges and jail offi­cials of delib­er­ate­ly sub­ject­ing Mr. Mag­nit­sky to inhu­mane con­di­tions and depriv­ing him of vital med­ical care in an effort to pres­sure him into giv­ing tes­ti­mo­ny that inves­ti­ga­tors sought. He died Nov. 16 at Moscow’s Butyr­ka prison after suf­fer­ing gall stones.

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The Moscow Times: Activists Say Magnitsky Was Murdered

April 23, 2010

Human rights activists are call­ing on author­i­ties to open a mur­der inquiry into the death of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, who died in pre­tri­al deten­tion in November.

“Mag­nit­sky died of sys­tem­at­ic tor­ture and not of neg­li­gence,” Valery Bor­shchy­ov, of the Moscow Helsin­ki Group, told reporters Thursday.

The 37-year-old lawyer died in a deten­tion cen­ter on Nov. 16 after offi­cials repeat­ed­ly denied him med­ical treat­ment for ill­ness­es that he devel­oped while wait­ing near­ly a year for his polit­i­cal­ly taint­ed tax tri­al to begin.

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