Bid to drop charges in Magnitsky death
Case triggers major Russia, US row
MOSCOW, Dec 24, (AFP): Russian prosecutors said Monday the man on trial for causing the death of a whistle-blowing attorney should be freed without charge, in a surprising development in a case that has triggered a major row between Moscow and Washington.
Dmitry Kratov is the only official remaining as a defendant in the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who died of untreated illnesses in 2009 while in pre-trial detention at a Moscow jail.
Magnitsky had claimed to have uncovered a $235 million state embezzlement scheme before being arrested by the very officials he implicated in the crime.
His case caused international a chance of survival if the ban on international adoption is to be put in place,” the petition continues.
The petitioners urged the Obama administration to “identify those involved in adopting such legislature responsible under the ‘Magnitsky Act.’”
A second petition, signed by more than 7,000 people, asks that the Magnitsky Act “be extended to supporters of this law in (the) Russian outrage and led to the passage of a US law that blacklists Russian officials allegedly involved in the death.
Moscow retaliated by introducing legislation banning the adoption of Russian children by American citizens, in the biggest diplomatic scandal in years between the two sides.
In Monday’s development, prosecutor Dmitry Bokov said that Kratov, deputy head of the prison where Magnitsky was held, should be acquitted of a charge of negligence, because he acted according to the rules and did not receive any complaints from the lawyer.
“There is no cause-effect relationship between Kratov’s actions Duma.” And a third, with nearly 3,500 signatures, asked Obama to add Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Magnitsky list of human rights violators if he signs the law banning adoptions by Americans.
According to White House rules, there must be an official response if the petition reaches 25,000 signatures within 30 days.
Russian deputy Irina Yarovaya, who heads the Duma’s security com- and Magnitsky’s death,” news agencies quoted Bokov as saying in court.
Kratov and prison doctor Larisa Litvinova had been the only two people charged in August 2011 in connection with Magnitsky’s death, despite allegations that more senior officials were involved.
Charges against Litvinova, the doctor who treated Magnitsky and was accused of causing his death by negligence, were dropped in April after the expiry of the statute of limitations.
Magnitsky’s employer Hermitage Capital and rights activists charge that his death was a premeditated murder carried out by interior ministry officials. mittee, denounced the petitions.
Such initiatives “cross the limits of international law, of international relations and of a nation’s sovereign rights,” said Yarovaya in comments cited by Russian news agency Interfax.
Another lawmaker, Vyacheslav Nikonov, told Moscow Echo Radio that if Washington acted on the petitions, it could lead to “very serious diplomatic complications.”