Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a bill banning the jailing of people suspected of tax crimes and has fired another senior prison official following the death in custody of a tax lawyer in November.
Medvedev, who has advocated more lenient punishment for economic crimes, signed a law banning the jailing of people under suspicion of tax crimes and allowing those convicted of a first tax offence to be fined without being held criminally liable, the Kremlin said in a statement Tuesday.
In a separate decree, the president fired Alexander Piskunov, deputy head of the Federal Penitentiary Service. Lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, 37, died last month after pancreatitis he developed while in custody went untreated. His death triggered a wave of criticism of Russian authorities within Russia and abroad. Medvedev has since fired 20 senior Federal Penitentiary Service officials, including the Moscow prisons chief and the head of the jail where Magnitsky spent his last months.
Comments
Comments are closed.