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Legislation for Ill Suspects Is Ready

The Justice Ministry has finished work on a bill that will grant gravely ill suspects the same rights as convicts with serious diseases — including early release from custody, its minister, Anatoly Konovalov, said late Wednesday.

The ministry plans to submit the bill to the government this month as a part of a raft of legislation on prison reform, Konovalov said.

"Those who have been convicted can be released because of a serious disease. There is a list of such illnesses approved by the government," Konovalov told journalists, Interfax reported.

The new bill would grant the same rights to jailed suspects, Konovalov said.

The prison reform was triggered after the November death of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, 37, in a pretrial detention center in Moscow.

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