Russia slams Dutch resolution on Magnitsky

A Dutch parliamentary resolution on the death of Moscow lawyer Sergei Magnitsky is interference in Russia’s internal affairs, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

The Dutch parliament voted unanimously on Monday for a resolution to impose travel and economic sanctions against Russian officials allegedly involved in Magnitsky’s death.

Magnitsky was working for the Hermitage Capital investment fund when he was arrested as part of an embezzlement and tax evasion investigation. He had claimed to have uncovered massive fraud on the part of law enforcement officials just before he was detained. He died of heart failure aged 37 in a notorious Moscow pretrial detention facility. His death led to an international outcry.

Russian investigators said on Monday that Magnitsky died because he did not receive medical assistance in a timely fashion.

Those responsible for his death will be prosecuted in the near future, Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said on Monday.

The Russian president’s human rights council will make public its interim report on Magnitsky’s death on July 15, a member of the council said on Tuesday.

Mikhail Fedotov, head of Presidential Council on Civil Society and Human Rights said his committee could not indentify anyone implicated in its report until it had been read by the president.

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