Not only doctors

The Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights handed over to President Dmitry Medvedev a report on the results of the investigation into the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

The report mentions the alleged perpetrators of his death. While the Investigative Committee chose to blame the doctors who did not provide Magnitsky with proper medical care, the list presented by the Council is not limited to them. In addition to the doctors (in particular, the “Matrosskaya Tishina” surgeon Alexandra Gauss, who did not provide assistance to Magnitsky on the day of his arrival at the “Matrosskaya Tishina”, but called a psychiatric team and a reinforcement team and later reported that the ambulance staff allegedly carried out resuscitation measures, and the head of the therapeutic department of Butyrka, Larisa Litvinova, who did not remember that Magnitsky was ordered to undergo an ultrasound of the abdominal cavity and was inattentive to the deterioration of his condition), the report mentions the investigators of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Artem Kuznetsov and Pavel Karpov, who were in charge of Magnitsky’s case despite the fact that he suspected them of illegal fraud with the re-registration of companies and the return of tax revenues, investigator Oleg Silchenko, who repeatedly refused a medical examination of Magnitsky, judge of the Tverskoy District Court Elena Stashina, who left Magnitsky in custody despite his grave physical condition, the head of Butyrka Dmitry Komnov and the head Butyrka medical unit Dmitry Kratov, who gave unconfirmed information about Magnitsky’s condition and the provision of medical care to him, the head of Matrosskaya Tishina, Ivan Prokopenko, who, under a far-fetched pretext, made the decision to transfer Magnitsky to Butyrka a week before scheduled medical examinations and surgery, and a number of other responsible persons.

The investigation was carried out by three working groups of the Council: a specially created working group to study the circumstances of Magnitsky’s death, headed by the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseeva, a working group on civil participation in legal reform (headed by retired Constitutional Court judge Tamara Morshchakova) and a working group on civil participation in combating corruption and ensuring public safety, led by Chairman of the National Anti-Corruption Committee Kirill Kabanov.

Medvedev admitted that, “apparently,” there were “really some crimes” in the Magnitsky case, but noted that he “just really wouldn’t want us to deal with the problem of a large number of people who are probably in prison, not always justified and fair, reduced to the problem of one case.” “I sometimes have the feeling that in our country there are only two problems that should concern those involved in human rights, prosecutors, and ultimately the president: the Magnitsky case and the Khodorkovsky case. These are big, serious matters, but I believe that we still need to look deeper,” said the head of state.