Posts Tagged ‘physicians for human rights’
PHR Applauds US House Approval of Magnitsky Act
PHR applauds today’s vote by the US House of Representatives to pass legislation that would place sanctions on Russians implicated in the torture and death three years ago of a Russian anti-corruption lawyer.
The Magnitsky Act would require the US to place travel and financial restrictions on specific Russian officials associated with the death in prison of Sergei Magnitsky, who uncovered and made public a $230 million fraud involving tax refunds.
“Mr. Magnitsky’s death in a Russian prison was almost certainly the result of torture and deliberate medical neglect,” said Susannah Sirkin, deputy director of PHR. “Three years later, Russia has failed to take significant action to identify and prosecute those responsible — another instance in a consistent pattern of impunity for officials who engage in torture and other human rights abuses. Today’s House vote is a welcome step toward providing Mr. Magnitsky’s family with some measure of justice, and we look forward to seeing the bill become law.”
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Destruction of Samples in Magnitsky Case Appears to be a Deliberate and Calculated Attempt to Prevent Justice
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) today raised concerns over the cremation of tissue, organs, and other samples in the death investigation of 37-year-old lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Given the ongoing and controversial nature of the investigation, destruction of the samples by the Russian authorities is contrary to best practices within any judicial system.
Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer investigating a corruption case for a client, UK-based investment firm Hermitage Capital Management, died following 358 days in police custody in Moscow in November 2009. Magnitsky, who had uncovered an alleged $230 million tax fraud perpetrated by a group of senior police officers and government officials, was arrested on November 24, 2008 and charged with tax evasion. The high profile case has focused international attention on human rights abuse and corruption in Russia.
PHR’s experts, including a leading forensic pathologist, reviewed available documentation to provide an independent voice in support of the Magnitsky family. In April, Russian officials turned down a formal request by Magnitsky’s mother, seeking PHR’s independent investigation into her son’s tragic death.
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Doctors’ NGO Says Magnitsky’s Death Documentation Incomplete
The U.S.-based organization Physicians for Human Rights says it is concerned by the official documentation related to the death in jail of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, RFE/RL’s Russian Service reports.
Magnitsky, an attorney for the investment firm Hermitage Capital, died in pretrial detention in November 2009. Officials said he died of heart failure. Human rights activists and his former colleagues, however, say he died because he was denied medical treatment.
On July 19, Physicians for Human Rights issued its report on Magnitsky’s death based on 44 documents provided by his relatives. The documents include Magnitsky’s letters to his family and his written requests to the management of the detention center to provide him with medical treatment.
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Jail Officials Targeted Over Magnitsky
Investigators said Monday that a criminal case has been opened into two prison officials in connection with the death of Hermitage lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and that they face possible charges of negligence.
Larisa Litvinova, former medical official at Moscow’s Butyrskaya pretrial prison, faces up to three years in prison if charged and convicted of unintentional manslaughter by breach of professional duty, the Investigative Committee said.
Her former superior, Dmitry Kratov, may be jailed for five years if charged with negligence that resulted in death, committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said, Interfax reported.
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Sergei Magnitsky: Russian officials named as suspects
Russian prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into two prison officials over the high-profile death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
The deputy governor and chief doctor at Butyrskaya prison in Moscow are suspected of negligence causing death.
Magnitsky’s case has become a cause celebre. Arrested after accusing the police of corruption, he was reportedly beaten and denied treatment in jail.
A report has concluded he suffered deliberate neglect and torture.
The group Physicians for Human Rights, on the request of Magnitsky’s family, conducted the first independent medical evaluation of the case.
The report, released on Monday, concluded that he received “inadequate medical treatment”, and that his death was the result of “calculated, deliberate and inhumane neglect”.
It called on the Russian government to accept responsibility under the UN Convention Against Torture.
Different suspects
President Dmitry Medvedev’s human rights council produced a report earlier this month which concluded that there was reasonable suspicion that Magnitsky’s death was triggered by beatings while in police custody.
The report singled out senior interior ministry investigator Oleg Silchenko and prison chief Ivan Prokopenko as being at fault for neglect over the lawyer’s death.
However, these are not the same two officials named by prosecutors on Monday.
They are Larisa Litvinova, chief physician at Butyrskaya prison, and the prison’s deputy chief Dmitry Kratov.
Magnitsky’s former employer told the Associated Press that more powerful people were still being protected.
“The Russian government are desperately trying to create the appearance that they are doing something here, without going after the real guilty parties,” said William Browder, who runs Hermitage Capital Management, for whom Magnitsky was working.
Magnitsky had claimed to have unearthed evidence that implicated the police, officials and bankers in a massive fraud, which used Hermitage as a vehicle.
He was later arrested, himself accused of fraud, and investigated by some of the very same people he had accused of corruption.
He was imprisoned without trial in November 2008, developed pancreatitis in jail but was never properly treated, and died in November 2009, aged 37. займы на карту срочно займ онлайн на карту без отказа https://zp-pdl.com/get-a-next-business-day-payday-loan.php https://zp-pdl.com/how-to-get-fast-payday-loan-online.php займ на карту онлайн
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