Russian investigators who were looking into a case against a lawyer for a British hedge fund who died in a Moscow jail will not face charges over the death, a Russian Investigative Committee spokesman said.
Sergei Magnitsky died in a Moscow pretrial detention center at the age of 37 after spending 358 days awaiting trial. The Russian Prosecutor General's office said he died of heart failure, but Hermitage Capital head Bill Browder told the BBC that Magnitsky was "killed" after refusing to sign a confession.
Vladimir Markin said the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, human rights activist Lyudmila Alekseyeva, appealed to the Investigative Committee to charge those police officials involved into Magnitsky's case.
He said that after an investigation the appeal was refused due to lack of evidence.
Human rights activists considered unlawful the refusal to launch criminal proceedings against investigators and other staff of the Investigative Committee and are intended to appeal against it.
"A man [Magnitsky] died because of conditions in a pretrial detention center and no one was held responsible," Alekseyeva said. "We will continue to work on this case, will appeal against this decision. We will sue them for inactivity".
Markin said that Alekseyeva, like any Russian citizen, had the right to appeal against the decision.
He added that the investigation into Magnitsky's death had been extended.
The head of the Federal Penitentiary Service said last year that the service was partially responsible for the death of the lawyer.
Following Magnitsky's death, which caused uproar in Russia, President Dmitry Medvedev pushed through a law allowing people suspected of economic crimes to be released on bail in order to prevent jail detentions being used to pressure businessmen. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called the death a "tragedy".
Investigators alleged that Magnitsky had conspired with Browder, who has reportedly been banned from entering Russia, to establish dummy firms to illegally buy and sell shares in Russian energy giant Gazprom.
