Russian Court to Hear Negligence Indictment in Magnitsky Case

September 13, 2012

Today at 11 am, the Tver­skoi Dis­trict Court in Moscow will begin hear­ings on the indict­ment of Dmit­ry Kra­tov, for­mer deputy chief of Butyr­ka deten­tion cen­ter for med­ical negligence. 

Kratov’s indict­ment absolves him from any respon­si­bil­i­ty for the com­plic­i­ty in Magnitsky’s tor­ture and mur­der. It is signed by Deputy Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor, Vic­tor Grin, the same pros­e­cu­tor who launched the unprece­dent­ed posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion against Sergei Mag­nit­sky last year. This is the first pros­e­cu­tion of a dead man in Russ­ian history.
The neg­li­gence case will be heard by Judge Tatiana Nevero­va, the same judge who refused Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s peti­tion about the vio­la­tion of his rights when he was still alive.
“Under this case, the inves­ti­ga­tors and pros­e­cu­tors have legalised the know­ing­ly false ver­sion of Magnitsky’s death in deten­tion alleged­ly on med­ical grounds, due to heart fail­ure and made-up diag­noses of sug­ar dia­betes and hepati­tis. This med­ical ver­sion masks the cru­el ret­ri­bu­tion Mag­nit­sky fell vic­tim of for his role in defend­ing his client, the Her­mitage Fund, and in expos­ing the crim­i­nal scheme secret­ly func­tion­ing over sev­er­al years through which bil­lions of rou­bles had been siphoned from the bud­get,” said lawyer Niko­lai Gorokhov, coun­sel to Magnitsky’s mother.
At the pre­lim­i­nary hear­ing that took place on 27 July 2012, the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly lawyer request­ed the crim­i­nal case in rela­tion to Kra­tov be returned to pros­e­cu­tors for a full inves­ti­ga­tion of his role in the con­spir­a­cy to false­ly imprison, tor­ture and mur­der Sergei Mag­nit­sky. The judge refused his peti­tion on the grounds that no oth­er co-con­spir­a­tors have been iden­ti­fied in the inves­ti­ga­tion into Magnitsky’s death. 

Judge Nevero­va also refused all oth­er appli­ca­tions from the fam­i­ly’s lawyer.

A year ago, Mrs Mag­nit­skaya wrote to the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee nam­ing a num­ber of Russ­ian offi­cials for their com­plic­i­ty in the false arrest, tor­ture and mur­der of her son (http://russian-untouchables.com/rus/docs/D275.pdf). The inves­ti­ga­tors have refused to open a probe into those offi­cials named by Magnitsky’s moth­er and have ful­ly exon­er­at­ed them.
In Novem­ber 2010, Sergei Magnitsky’s moth­er received the Glob­al Integri­ty Award from Tans­paren­cy Inter­na­tion­al on behalf of her late son hon­or­ing his fight against Russ­ian gov­ern­ment corruption. 

See a report on the Cov­er up of Magnitsky’s murder:
http://www.russian-untouchables.com/rus/docs/P01RUS.pdf

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