Officials at a Moscow jail where a businesswoman died while awaiting trial said on Saturday they had twice asked prosecutors to review the terms of the seriously ill woman's detention.
Vera Trifonova died of heart failure on Friday in the hospital wing of the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention facility. The 53-year-old was arrested in December and charged with attempting to sell a seat in the Russian parliament.
"Given the severe clinical course and adverse clinical and rehabilitative prognosis of Trifonova's illness, the [Matrosskaya Tishina] administration...twice sent the investigators...requests to change the terms of detention," the press service of the Moscow department of the Federal Penitentiary Service said.
It added that the petitions were sent on March 25 and April 9, 2010.
Moscow prosecutors have opened an investigation into Trifonova's death.
The businesswoman, who headed KitElitNedvizhimost real estate agency, was alleged to have attempted to sell a State Duma seat to Pavel Razumov, a board chairman of MFT-Bank, for $1.5 million.
According to investigators, Trifonova and her accomplice Georgy Shamiryan, a former deputy of the Magadan Regional Duma, promised the banker to lobby his interests to get the seat in the Russian parliament, but instead they decided to steal the money.
Vladimir Zherebenkov, a lawyer for the wheelchair-bound Trifonova, said the defense earlier asked to release her from custody in the pre-detention center due to her poor health.
"However, the pre-detention center's administration, investigators and court officials decided that she [Trifonova] is able to withstand the conditions of the ward. Perhaps the story with Magnitsky did not teach anyone a lesson," Zherebenkov said.
Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, 37, died in a Moscow pretrial detention center in November 2009 after spending 358 days awaiting trial on tax evasion charges. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office said Magnitsky died of a heart attack.
Earlier in the week, a U.S. senator urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to impose a ban on visas for 60 Russian officials and other individuals involved in a $230 million corruption case related to the Magnitsky case.
The Federal Penitentiary Service admitted it was partial responsible for the death of the lawyer.
MOSCOW, May 1 (RIA Novosti)
