Interior Ministry investigators, judges and prosecutors are to blame for squalid conditions in the Butyrskaya detention center that lead to the death of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky last month, according to an independent report released Monday.
The Moscow Public Oversight Commission, a new nongovernmental organization that is mandated by law to monitor human rights in Moscow detention facilities, said in a 20-page report that the investigators and Butyrskaya staff were responsible for “torturous” detention conditions for Magnitsky, who died Nov. 16 just four days after a court refused to consider a request for medical attention.
Interior Ministry officials say Magnitsky, 37, died of heart failure and had never complained about his health.
The report says, however, that the circumstances of Magnitsky’s death could not be fully determined because several key medical workers linked to the case could not be reached for questioning and other prison staff did not provide uniform and detailed answers.
The Prosecutor General’s Office has refused to open a criminal case into Magnitsky’s death, although President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered an investigation and fired 20 prison officials.