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.

Mr. Mag­nit­sky, who was 37, had been in jail for a year on charges of tax eva­sion and fraud after he accused senior police offi­cials of steal­ing $234 mil­lion in tax­es paid by his client, the Her­mitage Cap­i­tal invest­ment fund. His case was assigned to the same inves­ti­ga­tors that he accused in the mas­sive fraud.

The out­cry around Mr. Mag­nit­sky’s death drew the atten­tion of Pres­i­dent Dmit­ry Medvedev, who ordered an inves­ti­ga­tion and removed a num­ber of senior prison offi­cials. So far, how­ev­er, pros­e­cu­tors have cat­e­go­rized it only as a case of pos­si­ble negligence.

Mr. Bor­shchev said the case mer­it­ed more seri­ous charges. “It was the delib­er­ate cre­ation of tor­tur­ous con­di­tions for Sergei Mag­nit­sky with the goal of obtain­ing the tes­ti­mo­ny the inves­ti­ga­tors sought,” Mr. Bor­shchev said. “There needs to be a crim­i­nal case here.”

Spokes­peo­ple for the Inte­ri­or Min­istry, pris­ons and pros­e­cu­tor said they could­n’t com­ment on the case Thurs­day. In the weeks after Mr. Mag­nit­sky’s death, they reject­ed his alle­ga­tions of major fraud and tor­ture and said his death was a trag­ic accident.

Mr. Bor­shchev said unof­fi­cial­ly, pros­e­cu­tors have told him they are study­ing his pan­el’s report. He said they also agreed to do anoth­er analy­sis of the cause of death, which prison exam­in­ers orig­i­nal­ly report­ed as heart fail­ure. But he not­ed that at least one of the prison offi­cials removed after Mr. Mag­nit­sky’s death has been reap­point­ed to anoth­er job. None have been charged with any crimes, he said.

Lyud­mil­la Alex­eye­va, head of the Moscow Helsin­ki Group, one of Rus­si­a’s most promi­nent human-rights groups and a mem­ber of a pres­i­den­tial advi­so­ry pan­el, said Mr. Medvedev was “hor­ri­fied” by the case. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, the case “is not mov­ing despite his opin­ion,” she said, adding that she plans to call for a crim­i­nal probe at a reg­u­lar meet­ing of the pres­i­den­tial pan­el next week.

Her­mitage was one of the largest for­eign invest­ment funds in Rus­sia, until its founder and CEO, U.S.-born William Brow­der, had his Russ­ian visa revoked in 2005 on nation­al-secu­ri­ty grounds. Russ­ian offi­cials have charged Mr. Brow­der and sev­er­al of his staff with tax eva­sion and relat­ed crimes. They deny the allegations

By GREGORY L. WHITE

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704830404575200081024845658.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines

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