Prosecutors launched a probe into the death of Vera Trifonova, who died at a medical ward in a Moscow pre-trial detention center on Friday, a spokesman for the Moscow prosecutor's office said.
Trifonova, diagnosed with diabetes and ailing kidneys, was detained last December along with two accomplices on charges of large-scale fraud.
Sergei Marchenko said that according to preliminary information, wheelchair-bound Trifonova died of heart problems at a medical ward at the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center.
Trifonova, who headed KitElitNedvizhimost real estate agency, was charged with attempting to sell a seat in the Russian parliament 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 they would lobby to get him the seat in the Russian parliament, but instead they decided to steal the money.
Vladimir Zherebenkov, a lawyer for Trifonova, said the defense earlier asked to release her from custody in the pre-trial detention center due to her poor health.
"However, the pre-trial detention center's administration, investigators and court officials decided that she [Trifonova] woould be 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, who was waiting trial on tax evasion charges for 358 days, died in a Moscow pretrial detention center in November 2009. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office said Magnitsky died of a heart attack.
Earlier in the week, a U.S. senator urged U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to impose a ban on visas for 60 Russian officials and other individuals implicated in a $230 million corruption case that lead to the death of Magnitsky.
Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service has admitted its partial guilt in the death of the lawyer.
MOSCOW, April 30 (RIA Novosti)
