The committee who investigated the case said there was a direct link between the negligence of officials from Moscow’s Butyrskaya prison and Magnitsky’s death.
Larisa Litvinova, the top physician at the penal facility, has been charged with manslaughter by negligence, while the deputy chief of the prison, Dmitry Kratov, was charged with negligence, after a probe by the Council for Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights, commissioned in 2009 by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.
Investigators found that, among other instances of negligence, the doctors failed to treat Magnitsky for what seemed to be pancreatitis, and did not intervene when the inmate was severely beaten.
Supporters of Magnitsky and human rights activists say the charges are a step in the right direction, but others, including Magnitsky’s law firm Hermitage Capital, are saying that the two are “scapegoats” for the real decision-makers at higher levels of government.
William Browder, the company’s chief executive officer told Radio Free Europe that the two charged in the case are a fraction of the officials who where involved in Magnitsky’s death. “There are 60 people who played a role, one way or another, in his false arrest, torture, and death, or in the crimes that he blew the whistle on, and so this is two out of 60,” he said. “[It's a] good start, but there’s a lot more people -- and a lot more senior people -- that need to be prosecuted before we’re going to be anywhere near satisfied that justice has been done in this case.”
A report issued by the commission in July also found that higher level officials should be subject to charges.
Mikhail Fedotov, the head of the presidential council for human rights, told Interfax news agency that the charges brought against the doctors are a step in the right direction but that everyone responsible for Magnitsky’s death in prison should be punished.
Valery Borshchyov, the chairperson of the independent inquiry, which worked in tandem with the Human Rights Council, told the Moscow Times that Kratov and Litvinova do not bear the full responsibility for Magnitsky’s death because he actually died in another prison called Matrosskaya Tishina.
Borschyov said that the main perpetrators were Oleg Silchenko, who helped oversee the arrest of Magnitsky and later denied him medical treatment, and Matrosskaya Tishina chief doctor Alexandra Gauss.
Litvinova could face three years in prison and Kratov could receive five. The next hearing is scheduled for August 24. Kratov and Litvinova have not made public statements yet about the case, but analysts say their statements will be crucial for the investigation of other individuals.
The arrest comes after the Obama administration slapped sanctions on 60 Russian officials for their alleged involvement in Magnitsky’s death.
“It’s only because of the U.S. pressure and the EU pressure that the Russian law enforcement agencies have realized that they have to do something,” Browder told Interfax. “And every time they try to do something, it’s certainly not enough.”
