The Russian Investigation Committee charged two doctors over lawyer Sergei Magnitsky’s death in a pre-trial detention center, committee spokesman Sergei Markin said on Friday.
Hermitage Capital investment fund lawyer Magnitsky died after almost a year in a notorious Butyrka pre-trial detention center in November 2009. He had been arrested on tax evasion charges just days after claiming that police investigators had stolen $230 million from the state.
“Today laboratory doctor… Larisa Litvinova was charged with manslaughter. Earlier, charges of negligence were filed against the detention center’s deputy chief in charge of medical issues, Dmitry Kratov,” Markin said.
He added that “the investigation established a direct link between Magnitsky’s death and the doctors’ actions.”
According to the official version, Magnitsky did not receive timely medical aid and died of heart failure.
In July, a Kremlin rights council said Magnitsky’s death was likely to have been the result of a beating and that the charges against him were fraudulent.