On 25 February the Saint Petersburg Green Lamp press club screened, and held a discussion about, a Dutch-made documentary on the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died while held in a Moscow pre-trial detention facility on 16 November 2009. Magnitsky was 37 years old.
Sergei Magnitsky – Justice. Law. Fate, shown in St. Petersburg on 25 February, is one of a collection of documentary films held by
Frontline Russia.
Kogita!ru reports that the movie was shot in Holland in 2010, directed by Hans German and Martin Maat.
Moscow-based guests who took part in the viewing and discussion included journalist Olga Romanov, writer German Sadulaev and coordinator of the project Frontline Russia, Yury Burtsev.
Sergei Magnitsky, a consultant with the Hermitage Capital Management investment fund, was charged with tax fraud by an organization. He died while in solitary confinement in a Moscow pre-trial detention facility on 16 November 2009. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened a criminal investigation into the death of Sergei Magnitsky on the basis of Article 124 (failure to provide aid to a sick person) and Article 293 (negligence) of the Russian Criminal code. There was a public outcry in reaction to Magnitsky's death, and this led to amendments to criminal procedural legislation and changes among personnel in penitentiary institutions. Nevertheless, human rights defenders maintain that there has been no effective investigation into the reasons for Sergei Magnitsky's death. On 1 February, President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, at a meeting of the Presidential Council on Civil Society and Human Rights, proposed that independent reviews be conducted of several high-profile cases, including that of Sergei Magnitsky. Sergei Magnitsky had himself maintained that he was being prosecuted in revenge for evidence he had given that possibly implicated law enforcement employees in the embezzlement of government funds.
Sergei Magnitsky died at the age of 37, leaving a wife and two children. The documentary reveals previously unkown details about this human tragedy.
Frontline Russia is a club that acts as a venue for discussion of current issues and the role of journalism in the development of society. Frontline's partner in St. Petersburg is the Green Lamp press club. 
