By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – Following a investigation into the death of lawyer Sergi L. Magnitsky last month, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has fired 20 leading national prison officials.

After being arrested last year on alleged tax-evasion charges and his relationship to British investor William Browder, who was considered a security threat by the Russian government, Magnitsky had been held in a jail in Moscow.  He was awaiting trial for allegedly participating in tax evasion.

Magnitsky had worked as a lawyer for HSBC and Hermitage Capital Management, Browder’s company, prior to his arrest.  Those companies had been under investigation for tax fraud by the Russian government.  According to his supporters, Magnitsky was being pressured by the government to testify against Browder and Hermitage.  In recent years Browder had become a well-known critic of what his saw corruption in the Russian private sector.

According to his lawyers, Magnitsky had been denied medical attention during his time in prison, and this led to his death as a result of heart failure and toxic shock.  The investigation that resulted in the prison officials firing indicated that standard procedures were violated during the handling of Magnitsky.

Pretrail detention, a practice which is commonplace in so-called ‘white-collar cases’, have garnered heightened scrutiny by some in the Russian business community following his death.  The threat of long-term pretrail detention has been used as a form of coercion against others in the past who have been charged with crimes.

The director of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Alexander Reimer, has commented that it has not been verified whether Magnitsky’s death was a result of the violations of procedure.  Among those fired included the head of the Moscow prisons and the individuals responsible for the medical care of prisoners and pretrial detention.

Regarding his arrest, Magnitsky’s former boss Jamison Firestone has stated that “Sergei was falsely imprisoned by law enforcement officers who he accused of aiding a theft of $230 million from the Russian Treasury.”  Firestone also noted that the government’s investigation into the prison officials has taken the spotlight off the larger question that still needs answering, why “Sergei was put in prison in the first place and why his conditions were made so bad.”

For more information, please see:

WALL STREET JOURNAL – Russia Fires Jailers After Lawyer Death – 12 December 2009

AP – Russia: Officials fired in lawyer jail death probe – 11 December 2009

NEW YORK TIMES – Top Russian Prison Officials Are Dismissed by Medvedev – 11 December 2009