Russian Human Rights Panel Blames Officials in Lawyer's Death

The Presidential Council on Civil Society and Human Rights, a group of prominent human rights activists that advises President Medvedev, published a highly critical report on Wednesday in the case of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.  The panel argued that highly placed prison officials and investigators (including lead investigator Oleg Silchenko) share responsibility for Mr. Magnitsky's death in state custody.  The panel's report concludes that Mr. Magnitsky's death in 2009 may have been caused by a beating at the hands of a team of orderlies at a clinic where Mr. Magnitsky had been sent following symptoms of abdominal pain.  Although government officials had previously attributed Mr. Magnitsky's death to undetected heart disease, the panel relied on forensic tests that confirmed Mr. Magnitsky's body showed the "impact of a blunt hard object (or objects) not long before death."  The panel also criticized Silchenko, saying that he used invalid legal arguments to secure Mr. Magnitsky's pretrial detention.  The inquiry, now 18 months old, has been met with strong resistance by prison officials, police and investigators, and the panel's report presents a challenge for Mr. Medvedev who has demanded that the guilty parties be prosecuted.  Russia's powerful Investigative Committee announced this week that there would be prosecutions, but that they would be limited to doctors who had denied Mr. Magnitsky medical care.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/07/world/europe/07russia.html?_r=1&ref=russia