Russian lawyer buried after prison death
Family, friends blame lack of medical treatment
Relatives and friends yesterday buried a key witness in a Russian tax fraud battle whose sudden death in prison this week prompted an outcry from rights activists.
Prosecutors said lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, 37, died of heart failure.
Mourners at his funeral blamed Russia's notorious prison system for not properly attending to the medical needs of the father of two.
Mr Magnitsky had been an adviser to Hermitage, once Russia's top investment fund and now embroiled in a bitter legal battle with Russian authorities, while he worked at law firm Firestone Duncan.
"Doctors have a duty to treat people who are sick... and they simply did not treat him," said Mr Magnitsky's brother-in-law.
"In this way, they killed him, but I don't know if they did it intentionally."
Relatives have said Mr Magnitsky had suffered from stomach ailments since he was taken into prison almost a year ago.
Russia's Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov said there was no evidence a crime had been committed in Mr Magnitsky's treatment and challenged rights activists to provide facts to back up their accusations, Interfax news agency reported on Thursday.
Mr Magnitsky had been a suspect in a tax evasion case against Hermitage's co-founder Bill Browder, a US citizen refused entry to Russia in 2005 on national security grounds.
Mr Browder has accused officials of using Hermitage and other companies to fake tax refunds which have defrauded taxpayers of millions of dollars.
Mr Magnitsky's lawyer Dmitry Kharitonov said autopsy results due in a month should shed more light on the cause of death.
He said Mr Magnitsky had been kept in prison too long, illegally.
"Unfortunately, this is normal in our country," he said.
"And his fingers were all smashed up. It was probably from banging on the (cell) door for help."
Hermitage issued a statement yesterday quoting Mr Magnitsky as telling a Moscow court on November 12, four days before his death, that he had been chained and put in a cage.
"My right not to be subject to inhuman and degrading treatment which undermines human dignity ... has been violated," he said.