Moscow chief prison medical official says he did not receive complaints from Magnitsky, relatives

MOSCOW. Oct 30 (Interfax) - Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky's relatives and lawyers did not file complaints about the way he was provided with medical help at Moscow's detention facilities, says Alexei Levin, the chief of the Russian Federal Corrections Service's medical department for Moscow.

"His relatives and lawyers did not come to me. I did not receive a single complaint. I did not even know that there was such a patient. We usually know everyone who is seriously ill, but nobody came then," Levin said while testifying as a witness at the trial of former deputy head of the Butyrka detention facility Dmitry Kratov at Moscow's Tverskoi Court on Tuesday.

Kratov is being tried for negligence causing Magnitsky's death.

Levin said also that Butyrka detention facility had been regularly inspected by the Federal Corrections Service and prosecutors.

"Surely, irregularities were uncovered and some of them were eliminated, but lack of medical staff is one of the main problems, and it is very hard to deal with," Levin said.

Magnitsky, who was accused of tax evasion, died at the Moscow detention facility Matrosskaya Tishina on November 16, 2009. Acute cardiac arrest was officially named as the cause of his death. Magnitsky's defense lawyers claimed that he had complained of health problems and requested a thorough medical examination.

Magnitsky's death caused a public outcry, and human rights campaigners said doctors and police were to blame for his death.

The Russian Investigative Committee completed an additional forensic medical analysis in July 2011 and accused Kratov of "negligence that accidentally led to death," a criminal count that carries prison confinement of up to five years.

Investigators said that, "Kratov was negligent regarding inmates' healthcare needs," which ultimately led to Magnitsky's death.

The investigation claims that doctors at the detention facility did not order timely and appropriate treatment for Magnitsky. Moreover, when his health critically deteriorated, they failed to provide him with the necessary therapy, and he died of two conditions, namely secondary dysmetabolic cardiomyopathy combined with diabetes mellitus and chronic hepatitis.

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