MOSCOW, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Moscow's prison chief has been dismissed after an investigation into the death of a jailed lawyer for an equity fund whose relatives say he was denied medical treatment.
A decree signed by President Dmitry Medvedev on December 4, and reported by Russian media on Friday, also dismissed 19 other officials, including the head of the prison service’s medical wing, but it was unclear if their sackings were related.
Sergei Magnitsky, a 37-year-old lawyer for Hermitage Capital Management, once Russia’s biggest equity fund, died on Nov. 16 in a Moscow prison hospital.
Analysts say his death has become a test case of the Kremlin’s will to fight corruption.
A Kremlin spokesman confirmed the decree had ordered the prison chief’s dismissal. It did not give a reason, but prison service director Alexander Reimer said it was the direct result of an investigation started after Magnitsky’s death.
The service "undertook an internal probe linked to Magnitsky’s death which uncovered violations," Reimer told Echo Moskvy radio.
"As a result of the probe… Davydov will not be reappointed, he has been dismissed."
Calls to the prison service were not immediately answered.
Medvedev in November ordered prison and law-enforcement agencies to look into the circumstances of Magnitsky’s death after his lawyers said he was held illegally and not given proper treatment despite repeated requests for help.
A senior prison service official admitted 10 days after Magnitsky’s death there had been "clear violations" and said the service was partly to blame.
Magnitsky was a witness for Hermitage in its contention that corrupt officials embezzled $230 million in tax refunds.
He was arrested in 2008 and accused of involvement in alleged tax frauds by Hermitage. The lawyer was officially charged with tax evasion though his case never came to trial.
Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a leading rights activists who asked Medvedev to look into the death, welcomed the dismissal.
"I hope that this is another step towards the start of real reform of the prison service," she said.
But Jamison Firestone, Magnitsky’s former colleague and a managing partner at law firm Firestone Duncan, said he was disappointed the probe appeared to conclude that Magnitsky died because of neglect and not intentional mistreatment.
"Sergey’s was not neglected in prison, he was actively persecuted," Firestone said in e-mailed comments.
