Russia Drops Charges Against Doctor in Jail Death MOSCOW - Russian investigators have dropped the charges against a former prison doctor who was one of only two people to face punishment in the death of a 37-year-old lawyer whose arrest and maltreatment underscored the selective and sometimes brutal nature of Russia's justice system. The doctor, Larisa A. Litvinova, had been charged with professional negligence for failing to administer appropriate medical care to the lawyer, Sergei L. Magnitsky, in the weeks before his death in November 2009. But Russia's top investigative agency quietly ruled last week that the statute of limitations had run out in the case, according to a copy of the ruling made available on Sunday to The New York Times by Mr. Magnitsky's former employer, Hermitage Capital Management, an investment fund based in London. The decision was the latest twist in a case that has shown little movement toward resolution despite an outcry in Russia and abroad. The United States has barred dozens of officials suspected of involvement in Mr. Magnitsky's prosecution from entering the United States, a move several European countries are considering. Dr. Litvinova, a physician at the Butyrskaya Prison responsible for overseeing Mr. Magnitsky's medical care in the weeks before his death, was one of only two people charged in the case. The other, Dmitri Kratov, formerly the chief medical official at the prison, faces stiffer charges with a longer statute of limitations. After Mr. Magnitsky's death, it took investigators more than a year and a half to bring the charges. Before that, they had insisted that Mr. Magnitsky had died of natural causes and had not complained of any ailments before his death. But an investigation by an independent prisons watchdog group, the Public Oversight Commission, found that investigators had pressed doctors, including Dr. Litvinova, to withhold medical treatment from Mr. Magnitsky in an effort to get him to testify against Hermitage Capital in a high-profile tax evasion case. The commission found that Mr. Magnitsky had received a diagnosis of pancreatitis and gall bladder disease, but that he was left untreated. In interviews conducted by the commission, Dr. Litvinova said that a day before his death, Mr. Magnitsky had a swollen stomach and vomited repeatedly. She indicated that she had pressed investigators to approve further treatment to no avail. Mr. Magnitsky, who was working as outside counsel for Hermitage Capital, an international investment fund, died after nearly a year in a pretrial detention center. The official cause of death was heart failure and toxic shock. Reached by phone on Sunday, Dr. Litvinova said she was not able to comment, but would make a statement when she was ready. Mr. Magnitsky's former colleagues expressed outrage over the decision to drop the charges. "This just shows the incredible lack of justice in Russia," said William F. Browder, Hermitage Capital's executive director. He called the two doctors "scapegoats" who had been charged in an effort to dampen some of the criticism over the case. "What is amazing is they can't even scapegoat the scapegoats," he said by phone from London. Mr. Magnitsky's family and former colleagues have urged Russian authorities to broaden the investigation beyond the prison staff. They say that Mr. Magnitsky's arrest and imprisonment on tax evasion charges were orchestrated as punishment after he had uncovered a scheme by Interior Ministry officials to use shell companies once owned by Hermitage to embezzle $230 million from the Russian treasury. No further arrests have been made. In fact, investigators say that they plan to resubmit for trial the original tax evasion case against Mr. Magnitsky, who would have turned 40 on Sunday.