The NY Times: Inquiry Stalled in Death of Russian Lawyer

April 22, 2010

Two human rights cam­paign­ers said on Thurs­day that despite per­son­al inter­ven­tion by Rus­sia’s pres­i­dent, Dmitri A. Medvedev, offi­cials respon­si­ble for the death of a lawyer last year in pre­tri­al deten­tion are fac­ing no sub­stan­tial punishment.

In Novem­ber, Mr. Medvedev ordered an inquiry into the treat­ment of Sergei L. Mag­nit­sky, a 37-year-old lawyer who died in a prison hos­pi­tal after care­ful­ly doc­u­ment­ing his requests for med­ical care. Amid pub­lic out­rage over the case, Mr. Medvedev dis­missed around 20 prison offi­cials and pros­e­cu­tors opened an inquiry into neg­li­gence and refusal of med­ical care.

But five months have passed and no one has yet been charged with a crime. Lyud­mi­la M. Alex­eye­va, who sits on Mr. Medvedev’s human rights coun­cil, said she will rec­om­mend the body take con­trol of the case, which she said “is not moving.”

“We have a ver­ti­cal of pow­er. Our pres­i­dent has con­sti­tu­tion­al pow­ers no emper­or ever had,” said Ms. Alex­eye­va, chair­woman of the Moscow Helsin­ki Group. “But did that help pun­ish those who brought Mag­nit­sky to his death? Noth­ing of the kind. All those peo­ple are still work­ing in their positions.”

“The pres­i­dent is indig­nant,” she added, “but this sig­nal does not make its way to the bottom.”

A spokesman for the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee of the Russ­ian pros­e­cu­tor general’s office was not avail­able for comment.

Mr. Mag­nit­sky had been work­ing as out­side coun­sel for the Her­mitage Fund, whose own­er, William F. Brow­der, had accused Russ­ian offi­cials of using his com­pa­nies to embez­zle mon­ey. Russ­ian offi­cials charged Her­mitage with tax eva­sion and arrest­ed Mr. Mag­nit­sky. Dur­ing the year Mr. Mag­nit­sky spent in pre­tri­al deten­tion, his defend­ers say, inves­ti­ga­tors pressed him to tes­ti­fy against Hermitage.

Valery V. Bor­shchev, who heads a watch­dog group that mon­i­tors prison con­di­tions, said his orga­ni­za­tion received no response to a scathing report it sub­mit­ted to pros­e­cu­tors in Decem­ber. He said he believed Mr. Mag­nit­sky was inten­tion­al­ly denied med­ical care on the orders of the lead inves­ti­ga­tor in the tax-eva­sion case, who he said is guilty not of neg­li­gence but of a far graver crime, “inten­tion­al­ly cre­at­ing the con­di­tions that led to death.”

“This is not just a mat­ter of the life and death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, it is a ques­tion of our entire sys­tem,” he said, adding that last year 4,600 inmates died in Russ­ian prison colonies and 540 in pre-tri­al deten­tion centers.

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