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Magnitsky Case Sent to Prosecutors

A pin bearing the face of Sergei Magnitsky and the words “We demand justice.” Igor Tabakov

Federal authorities have finished investigating the former head of medical assistance at Moscow's Butyrka prison, where Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky had been kept before he died in another prison in late 2009.

The case has been forwarded to the Prosecutor General's Office in order to charge Dmitry Kratov with criminal negligence that resulted in Magnitsky's death, RIA-Novosti reported.

In late 2008, shortly after accusing tax and police officials of embezzling $230 million, Magnitsky was jailed on tax evasion charges. He died of heart failure at the Matrosskaya Tishina prison a few months after being transferred from Butyrka.

In an e-mailed statement Thursday, Hermitage Capital called the investigation a "farce" because Kratov was "not present at Matrosskaya Tishina."

An independent inquiry by the Kremlin's Human Rights Council determined that Magnitsky died after being beaten by guards.

If convicted of criminal negligence, Kratov faces five years in prison.

The investigation, which began in August 2011, initially included prison doctor Larisa Litvinova, but the case against her was closed.

Litvinova had been accused of manslaughter, punishable by up to three years in prison.

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