Russian prosecutors to continue probe into Magnitsky case

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office will continue to investigate the circumstances of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky’s death in detention, although it has cleared an investigator of all charges, an Investigative Committee spokesman said on Monday.

Lawyer Magnitsky died aged 37 in a Moscow pre-trial detention facility in 2009 after being refused medical treatment for pancreatitis. He had been detained as part of an investigation into embezzlement involving the Hermitage Capital investment company, for whom he was working.

Magnitsky claimed he had been falsely imprisoned by the same officials in the Interior Ministry that he had accused of embezzlement.

Prosecutors ruled earlier on Monday that Oleg Silchenko, an investigator in the Magnitsky case, had not violated any federal laws in “pressing criminal charges and arresting” the suspect, as well as extending his custody pending trial.

“The Investigative Committee will continue its investigation into Magnitsky’s death in pre-trial detention facility,” spokesman Vladimir Markin said.

“The investigation is to establish not only circumstances of Magnitsky’s death, but also circumstances surrounding his arrest, detention and extension of his custody,” he said.

President Dmitry Medvedev has said the results of the investigation into the death of Magnitsky will be made public in the near future.

Medvedev said Russia will back any investigative action within the bounds of the law and that “all persons involved in the crime, both in Russia and abroad, must be identified.”

MOSCOW, May 30 (RIA Novosti) 

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