MOSCOW, March 19 (Itar-Tass) – The criminal case over the death of auditor of the Hermitage Capital Management Foundation Sergei Magnitsky is terminated over the absence of the event of the crime, the press service of the Russian Investigation Committee told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
“During the investigation of the criminal case the circumstances of Magnitsky’s death and the lawfulness of the actions of the state officials were checked over Magnitsky’s bringing to criminal responsibility and with due account of the conclusions, which were laid down in numerous petitions of the injured parties, media reports and the addresses of the human rights organizations,” the press service reported.
“The detectives found that the criminal persecution of Magnitsky (on the accusation for tax evasion – Itar-Tass) was executed in the standard legal procedure. The court ruled on the measure of restraint in the way of putting Magnitsky under arrest according to the law and over the actual fact of sufficient grounds for this,” the press service of the Russian Investigation Committee noted.
“When Magnitsky was being kept at the detention centres no special conditions for keeping him under arrest were provided, contrary to the conditions of keeping other defendants being under investigation, no pressure was exerted on him and no physical violence or tortures were used against him,” the press service reported.
“On the resolution of the forensic experts, Magnitsky died of an acute heart attack, cerebral edema and pulmonary edema with acute haemorrhages, which had developed over ventricular fibrillation as a result of a complication of two main concurrent diseases: secondary dysmetabolic cardiomyopathy amid diabetes and an active chronic hepatitis,” the Investigation Committee recalled.
“Thus, during the investigation of the criminal case no fair information about the crimes committed against Sergei Magnitsky was found. Over this fact upon the results of the preliminary investigation (by the Main Investigation Department of the Russian Investigation Committee) it was decided to terminate the criminal case over the absence of the event of the crime,” the press service said.
Sergei Magnitsky, who died at the age of 37 years, was a managing partner of the audit company Firestone Duncan. Magnitsky, who was accused of abetting at tax evasion, died at the intensive therapy ward of a hospital in the detention centre Matrosskaya Tishina on November 16, 2009, after 11 months of keeping under arrest and seven days after he faced the accusation. Before the transfer to the prison hospital he was being kept at Butyrka detention centre.
Former deputy head of the Butyrka detention centre Dmitry Kratov was earlier accused of negligence that entailed the death of a person, Larisa Litvinova, who worked as a laboratory attendant at the detention centre then, was charged with causing death through negligence over the bad performance of her professional duties. In April 2012 the criminal case against Litvinova was terminated over the expiry of the statute of limitations for bringing to criminal responsibility.
On December 28, 2012, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow pronounced an acquittal verdict for former deputy head of the Butyrka detention centre Dmitry Kratov. The court has passed this verdict with due account of the position of the public prosecutor, who asked to acquit Kratov over the absence of corpus delicti in his actions. Judge Tatiana Neverova noted in the verdict that the accusations brought against the defendant were not proved in the court hearings. “The diseases found in Magnitsky were not related with his death, the diseases that caused his death could not be diagnosed,” the judge said, agreeing on the conclusions of the experts and the position of the prosecutor’s office. The judge also noted that Kratov had taken all the measures to give the medical aid to Magnitsky over the diseases found in him. “Kratov’s negligence was not proved. There is no corpus delicti in the actions of defendant Kratov,” the judge underlined.