WSJ: Russia Fires Prison Officials Amid Inquiry Into Lawyer’s Death

December 11, 2009

MOSCOW — Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Dmit­ry Medvedev fired sev­er­al top prison offi­cials after an inter­nal inves­ti­ga­tion found pro­ce­dures were vio­lat­ed in the treat­ment of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a lawyer who died in a Moscow jail await­ing tri­al last month, a top offi­cial said Friday.

The sack­ings fall short, how­ev­er, of the broad­er inquiry into alleged police and judi­cial cor­rup­tion that Mr. Mag­nit­sky’s for­mer col­leagues have called for.

“Nobody is look­ing at why Sergei was put in prison in the first place and why his con­di­tions were made so bad,” said Jami­son Fire­stone, man­ag­ing part­ner of the Moscow law firm where Mr. Mag­nit­sky worked. “It’s a total cover-up.”

Mr. Mag­nit­sky, 37 years old, died sud­den­ly last month in Moscow’s Butyrskaya jail, where he was being held before tri­al on tax-eva­sion charges. Mr. Medvedev lat­er ordered an inves­ti­ga­tion into the case, and pros­e­cu­tors are prob­ing pos­si­ble neg­li­gence and denial of med­ical treatment.

The Krem­lin has declined to com­ment on Mr. Mag­nit­sky’s for­mer col­leagues’ alle­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion among investigators.

His death shocked Rus­si­a’s busi­ness and legal com­mu­ni­ties and high­light­ed the fre­quent use of pre-tri­al deten­tion in white-col­lar cas­es. Busi­ness groups say jail is often used as a pres­sure tac­tic, an alle­ga­tion Russ­ian author­i­ties deny.

Mr. Mag­nit­sky’s for­mer col­leagues say he was denied ade­quate med­ical care and sub­ject­ed to steadi­ly wors­en­ing con­di­tions dur­ing his near­ly year­long deten­tion. The col­leagues say the tac­tics were an effort to pres­sure him to drop alle­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion among those inves­ti­gat­ing his case and to incrim­i­nate William Brow­der, the Amer­i­can-born fund man­ag­er with whom Mr. Mag­nit­sky worked. Inves­ti­ga­tors deny those charges.

Alexan­der Reimer, direc­tor of the Fed­er­al Pen­i­ten­tiary Ser­vice, told Ekho Moskvy radio Fri­day that an inter­nal inves­ti­ga­tion had exposed rule vio­la­tions in the Mag­nit­sky case, includ­ing over­crowd­ed cells and lack of access to show­ers and exer­cise. As a result, top offi­cials had been removed and some dis­ci­plined, he said.

Mr. Reimer said it was too ear­ly to say whether the con­di­tions Mr. Mag­nit­sky was held in con­tributed to his death, a mat­ter that he said is still under investigation.

But lat­er Fri­day, a spokesman for the Pen­i­ten­tiary Ser­vice denied that Mr. Reimer had linked the per­son­nel changes to the Mag­nit­sky case, Ekho Moskvy report­ed. The spokesman could­n’t be reached for comment.

While the Krem­lin announced the fir­ing of 20 senior prison offi­cials Fri­day as part of a broad­er reshuf­fle at the agency, it did­n’t give a rea­son for the move.

Mr. Mag­nit­sky suf­fered from a pan­cre­at­ic ail­ment diag­nosed dur­ing the year he was in jail, and his lawyer and for­mer col­leagues say lack of treat­ment like­ly led to his death. Inves­ti­ga­tors say the pre­lim­i­nary cause of death was heart fail­ure, which lawyers say could lift poten­tial crim­i­nal respon­si­bil­i­ty from any offi­cials if confirmed.

Thurs­day, a top Russ­ian court offi­cial defend­ed a judge’s deci­sions to keep Mr. Mag­nit­sky in cus­tody for near­ly a year before tri­al, say­ing there was no ground to release him.

Mr. Brow­der, who says he has­n’t been able to get a visa to enter Rus­sia since 2005, denies vio­lat­ing tax rules. He said he and Mr. Mag­nit­sky exposed a $230 mil­lion fraud against the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment per­pe­trat­ed by some of the same Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials who are inves­ti­gat­ing their tax case. Min­istry offi­cials deny those charges.

The removals announced Fri­day include the head of Moscow pris­ons, as well as offi­cials respon­si­ble for jails and prison med­ical care nation­wide. Rus­si­a’s pris­ons are noto­ri­ous for over­crowd­ing, prim­i­tive con­di­tions and alle­ga­tions of harsh treatment.

“This was long over­due,” said Maria Kannabikh, a mem­ber of a Pen­i­ten­tiary Ser­vice advi­so­ry pan­el on human rights, not­ing that such a sweep of top offi­cials was unprece­dent­ed in her expe­ri­ence. “Mag­nit­sky was just the last drop.”

– Olga Pado­ri­na con­tributed to this article.

Write to Gre­go­ry L. White at greg.white@wsj.com

Orig­i­nal pub­lished in The Wall Street Jour­nal.

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