A Russian business executive in pretrial detention who supporters said had serious health problems is in excellent condition and even plays football, a penitentiary service official said on Friday.
The Prosecutor General's Office said on Tuesday that Moscow prosecutors were probing media reports that former vice president of the Euroset cell phone retailer Boris Levin, who has hepatitis, was in a serious condition and being denied medical assistance.
Levin is facing charges of kidnapping.
"He [Levin] is in excellent condition. We paid him a visit only yesterday: He is okay," said Viktor Dezhurov, chief of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) Moscow Administration. "He... even practices gymnastics and plays soccer."
Former Euroset CEO Yevgeny Chichvarkin posted a video message on his website asking President Dmitry Medvedev to pay attention to Levin's deteriorating health and alleging that he was being denied medical assistance as a form of pressure.
Chichvarkin, who has been living in Britain for almost a year, is wanted in Russia on suspicion of involvement in the 2003 abduction of Euroset's shipping agent, who allegedly stole large numbers of mobile phones.
In December 2009, London's City of Westminster Magistrates' Court adjourned hearings into Russia's extradition request for Chichvarkin until August 2, 2010.
Chichvarkin's appeal came not long after the deaths of two business executives in pretrial detention, which have put the prisons service under intense scrutiny and led Medvedev to order a series of official investigations.
Real estate agency owner Vera Trifonova, who was detained last December along with two accomplices on fraud charges, died in a Moscow pretrial detention center on April 30. She was wheelchair-bound and had been diagnosed with diabetes and kidney disease, but remained in detention despite the concerns about her ill health.
In November 2009, Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, 37, died of a heart attack in a Moscow pretrial detention center after awaiting trial on tax evasion charges for 358 days.
MOSCOW, May 14 (RIA Novosti)
