MOSCOW, November 27. /TASS/. Russia’s Prosecutor-General’s Office believes that the tests, which have been carried out, are sufficient to consider that lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and other accomplices of Hermitage Capital CEO William Browder were more than likely poisoned by toxic chemicals containing aluminum compounds, Official Spokesman Alexander Kurennoy said on Tuesday.
"The examinations, which have been conducted, are enough," Kurennoy told reporters during an interview with the Efir Internet channel of the Prosecutor-General’s Office.
After Magnitsky’s death, medical tests were carried out and a statement was drawn up on the condition of his internal organs, but at that time, detectives did not pay great attention to that because he was ill, according to the spokesman.
However, when other Browder associates died under similar circumstances, prosecutors and investigators suggested that this was not a coincidence. "They started studying all the documents, even the autopsies. And all of them had a similar medical pattern like Magnitsky," he said. There were deviations from the norm in the cardiovascular system and traces of aluminum were found in blood and in some cases in the liver.
"This provided grounds to develop this theory [on the poisoning]. I stress, this is a theory now," Kurennoy emphasized.
The Hermitage Capital case came to light back in 2008, when the fund’s auditor Sergei Magnitsky was arrested on a tax evasion charge. Having spent 11 months at a Moscow pre-trial detention center, Magnitsky died. Likewise, Valery Kurochkin, Oktai Gassanov and Semyon Korobeinikov, who were considered to be Browder’s accomplices, all died under suspicious circumstances.
The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office opened a criminal conspiracy investigation into Hermitage Capital CEO Willian Browder. According to detectives, attorney Sergei Magnitsky, Universal Savings Bank owner Semyon Korobeinikov and businessman Valery Kurochkin could have been poisoned on orders of the British-born financier.
Browder, who has been twice sentenced in Russia in absentia, had been the leading lobbyist behind the Magnitsky Act, which was signed into law by former US President Barack Obama in December 2012 to punish Russian officials allegedly responsible for Magnitsky’s death.