Human right activists stated that the death of a lawyer of the fund Heritage Capital, Sergey Magnistky, in the Butyrsky pre-trial detention center on November 16th 2009, was caused not by cardiovascular deficiency, but by numerous beatings. It made European politicians discuss Magnitsky’s list again.
However, the head of press service of the Investigation Department of the Russian interior ministry, Anzhela Kastuyeva, stated that the cause of death was detected on December 29th, 2009: “According to medical examination, the death was caused by cardiovascular deficiency.” Kastuyeva thinks that in the collective consciousness the criminal case is perceived as corrupt. Some interested forces draw a veil over some facts and exaggerate others, take separate phrases out of context.
The Hermitage Fund accused the Investigation Department of the interior ministry of involvement in illegal reregistration of three Russian companies founded by criminal defendants. This accusation wasn’t backed up by any evidence, according to Kastuyeva. And the Arbitration Court admitted the legality of reregistration, while the investigation committee confirmed that officers of law-enforcement agencies were not involved in it.
Arguing against human right activists, who state that isolation wards had been changed permanently for Magnitsky for worse conditions, the head of the press service quoted a letter by Magnitsky’s doctor, which says that the health of the defendant was satisfactory and he could be imprisoned. The reason for changing the isolation ward was the reconstruction of the facility
At the same time, the chairman of the National Anti-corruption Committee, Kirill Kabanov, said the committee is focused on the cause-effect relationship between Magnitsky’s death and his imprisonment. Kabanov is satisfied by the fact that the Investigation Department agreed to establish a joint working group for reappraisal of aspects of the case. He proposed to join all the cases in which Magnitsky was involved under one investigation. As for Hermitage, Kabanov noted that the international point of view won’t influence the independent investigation.
The head of the Investigation Department of the MIA of Russia, Pavel Lapshov, stated that the 5.4 billion-ruble fraud case is closed. The Investigation Department did not reopen the Magnitsky case in order to continue the investigation, but to give his relatives an opportunity to use their right for rehabilitation of the defendant. Lapshov confirmed that the death of Sergey Magnitsky was caused by cardiovascular deficiency, and he sees no connection between his death and the way he was treated behind bars.
