Russian judge who denied release of woman inmate who later died steps down

Judge blamed for Russian jail death resigns

MOSCOW — A Russian judge who repeatedly denied the release of a businesswoman who died in jail because of untreated illness has resigned, the Moscow Regional Court said Thursday.

Vera Trifonova died April 30 after more than four months in jail awaiting trial on fraud charges. The 53-year-old suffered from severe diabetes and chronic kidney failure. She was nearly blind and needed to use a wheelchair during her last months in jail.

Her lawyers have called for charges to be filed against the lead investigator in her case, the jail chief and Judge Olga Makarova, who turned down Trifonova’s pleas for release three times.

A spokeswoman for the Moscow Regional Court who asked to be unidentified citing the court’s policy said Thursday that the court accepted Makarova’s resignation on Saturday but did not say whether the judge will face any charges.

The court on Wednesday ruled that Makarova’s third ruling to keep Trifonova in jail was illegal.

Russian prosecutors said earlier this month that Sergei Pysin, the lead investigator in Trifonova’s case, is suspected of negligence for ignoring medical evidence of Trifonova’s illnesses and turning down repeated petitions to release her on health grounds. Two of his bosses have been fired for the failure to protect the prisoner’s rights.

Trifonova died in the same Moscow jail where 37-year-old lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in November after his pancreatitis went untreated during nearly a year. He was arrested on tax-evasion charges related to his work on a case involving allegations of police corruption.

Magnitsky’s death prompted President Medvedev to fire more than 20 prison officials and lauch a prison reform. But none of the investigators and police officers who Magnitsky said were to blame for his unbearable conditions have been charged.