Moscow City Court has upheld the acquittal of former deputy head of the Butyrka detention center Dmitry Kratov, who had been accused of negligence that led to the death of Sergey Magnitsky, a lawyer for Hermitage Capital.
The court has rejected an appeal filed by Magnitsky’s relatives,
contesting Kratov’s acquittal, instead seconding the original
verdict.
In late December, Moscow’s Tverskoy Court ruled that there was
not enough evidence that Kratov was guilty of
negligence. The ex-deputy head of the prison where Magnitsky died
was the only official facing a trial in connection with the
tragedy.
Kratov says he has not decided yet whether he will demand
compensation for the criminal proceedings lodged against him, now
deemed false. But Interfax reports it’s unlikely he will take it
any further.
The lawyer representing Magnitsky’s family, Nikolay Gorokhov,
said he will study the motivation behind the court’s ruling before
making any decisions to appeal it.
Financial lawyer Sergey Magnitsky, 37, died in pre-trial
detention in Moscow in November 2009.
He was working for the British investment fund Hermitage
Capital, which became embroiled in a series of scandals between
2007-2009. Magnitsky accused a group of Russian officials of
embezzlement. Soon afterwards he was arrested on charges of
assisting Hermitage Capital to evade tax and was awaiting trial in
Moscow’s Butyrka prison. He died in jail in 2009, about a year
after his detention, of what doctors said was a heart attack.
Magnitsky’s family demanded an investigation into his death.
The lawyer’s sudden death caused a huge international scandal
and accusations that Magnitsky had been tortured to make him
withdraw his accusations.
This article originally appeared on : RT