Two former prison doctors have been charged with negligence in connection with the death in jail of the lawyer Sergey Magnitsky.
This comes as Russia’s Investigative Committee completes a preliminary probe into the case. As a result, the case will be looked into separately from the main one.
The investigation into the case of two doctors, Dmitry Kratov and Larisa Litvinova, began in July 2011, after a link was uncovered between their actions and Magnitsky’s death at a detention facility in 2009.
Kratov, who was deputy head of the hospital at the detention center where Magnitsky died, was charged with negligence leading to accidental death. Litvinova, a doctor and laboratory assistant, was accused of improper performance of professional duties.
“The probe into the main criminal case is not over yet,” said Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin. “If other persons suspected of involvement in Magnitsky’s death are revealed, they will be prosecuted under their respective counts.”
Magnitsky, a 37-year-old lawyer who worked for a major foreign investment fund, died from heart failure in November 2009 while in a Moscow pre-trial detention center. He was being investigated as part of a major tax-evasion case.
The lawyer’s death caused outrage among the top managers of Hermitage Capital Management Fund, where he worked. The investors launched a major public campaign in Russia and abroad, accusing certain Russian officials along with the police, the Justice Ministry and the Tax Ministry, of corruption and embezzlement.