Sergei Magnitsky was declared free of heart disease 5 days before his death

December 10, 2009

PRESS RELEASE

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a 37-year old anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer who died in a Russ­ian pre-tri­al deten­tion cen­tre on 16 Novem­ber 2009, was not suf­fer­ing from heart dis­ease accord­ing to offi­cial med­ical reports made five days before his death. State­ments made today by uniden­ti­fied Russ­ian law enforce­ment agency sources claim Mag­nit­sky died of a car­dio­vas­cu­lar disease.

On 11 Novem­ber 2009, one day pri­or to the court hear­ing that pro­longed the pre-tri­al deten­tion of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, head of Butyr­ka deten­tion cen­tre Kom­nov and deputy head Kra­tov wrote to the court and the lawyers stat­ing that Sergei Mag­nit­sky suf­fered from chole­cystopan­cre­ati­tis and had a nor­mal heart function:

“Let­ter No 501212 – 8828 of 11.11.09. Fol­low­ing your request we would like to inform you that Sergei Leonidovich Mag­nit­sky, born 1972, was treat­ed in med­ical depart­ment of FBU IZ-77/2 UFSIN of Rus­sia (“Butyr­ka”) and received the fol­low­ing diag­no­sis: gall­stones and acute chole­cystopan­cre­ati­tis. His gen­er­al health con­di­tions are sat­is­fac­to­ry. Elec­tro car­dio­gram – sinu­soid rhythm is cor­rect, 66 beats per minute, EOS (elec­tri­cal axis of heart) is nor­mal, blood pres­sure – ¹²⁰⁄₇₀, pulse 72 beats per minute. Deemed able to par­tic­i­pate in court and inves­tiga­tive activ­i­ty. Deemed able to be held in pre-tri­al deten­tion. Head of FBU IZ-77/2 UFSIN of Rus­sia (“Butyr­ka”) Lt Colonel D. V. Kom­nov, Deputy Head of FBU IZ-77/2 UFSIN of Rus­sia (“Butyr­ka”) Respon­si­ble for med­ical issues Lieu­tenant Lt Colonel D. B. Kratov.”

Sergei Mag­nit­sky was arrest­ed in Moscow on 24 Novem­ber 2008. After sev­en months in deten­tion, on 1 July 2009, he was diag­nosed by doc­tors at Matrosskaya Tishi­na deten­tion cen­tre with gall­blad­der stones, pan­cre­ati­tis and cal­cu­lous chole­cys­ti­tis. He was pre­scribed with a repeat­ed ultra­sound exam­i­na­tion and surgery with­in a month. Instead of arrang­ing the planned surgery, on 25 July 2009 the admin­is­tra­tion of the deten­tion cen­tre organ­ised the trans­fer of Sergei Mag­nit­sky to anoth­er deten­tion cen­tre, Butyr­ka, which had no facil­i­ties to treat patients with pan­cre­ati­tis. Dur­ing August-Sep­tem­ber 2009, Sergei Mag­nit­sky and his lawyers filed repeat­ed requests for an ultra­sound exam­i­na­tion that were refused by Butyr­ka offi­cials on the grounds that their facil­i­ty did not have an ultra­sound machine avail­able and did not have guards avail­able to trans­port Mag­nit­sky to Matrosskaya Tishi­na for such an examination.

Over 20 appli­ca­tions from Sergei Mag­nit­sky and his lawyers for the pro­vi­sion of med­ical treat­ment filed in August-Sep­tem­ber 2009 with the Butyr­ka deten­tion cen­tre offi­cials and med­ical staff, inves­ti­ga­tor Silchenko, Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Chai­ka, and judges Krivoruchko and Stashina were refused.

On 2 Sep­tem­ber 2009, Inves­ti­ga­tor Silchenko issued a decree to ful­ly deny a request from Sergei Magnitsky’s lawyers about med­ical treatment.

On 14 Sep­tem­ber 2009, Judge Krivoruchko in front of Inves­ti­ga­tor Silchenko and pros­e­cu­tor Burov reject­ed for­mal com­plaints from Sergei Mag­nit­sky about his denial of med­ical treat­ment hav­ing ruled that these com­plaints were irrelevant.

On 9 Octo­ber 2009, Offi­cer Peche­gin of the Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Office replied that there was no basis for Pros­e­cu­tor Office involve­ment in rela­tion to the com­plaints about gross vio­la­tions of Sergei Magnitsky’s rights, includ­ing the denial of med­ical treatment.

On 12 Novem­ber 2009, Judge Stashina reject­ed peti­tions from Sergei Magnitsky’s lawyers about the denial of med­ical treat­ment for chole­cystopan­cre­ati­tis, diag­nosed in the July 2009 med­ical examination.

Fol­low­ing his death, Sergei Magnitsky’s lawyers request­ed an inde­pen­dent spe­cial­ist be includ­ed in the offi­cial autop­sy. This was denied by the author­i­ties. Lawyers then request­ed that an inde­pen­dent autop­sy be car­ried out. This was also denied.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, father of two chil­dren, died in police cus­tody after being detained for 12 months with­out tri­al. In Octo­ber 2008, he tes­ti­fied about the involve­ment of Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials in the theft of his client’s com­pa­nies and $230 mil­lion from the Russ­ian state. A month lat­er, he was arrest­ed by the same Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials. Yes­ter­day, the UK Law Soci­ety wrote a let­ter to Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Medvedev urg­ing him to con­duct a full inves­ti­ga­tion into the state­ments made by Sergei Mag­nit­sky about the involve­ment of Russ­ian police offi­cers in the theft of $230 mil­lion of state funds, his sub­se­quent deten­tion and the pres­sure exert­ed upon him with the involve­ment of the same Russ­ian police officers.

For fur­ther information:
+ 44 20 7440 1777
info@lawandorderinrussia.org

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