U.S. Senator Calls for U.S. Visa Ban of 60 Russian Officials Involved in Corruption and the Death of Sergei Magnitsky
April 26, 2010
26 April 2010 – Today the Chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, U.S. Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, called for immediate and permanent visa sanctions against 60 Russian officials who were involved in a $230 million corruption case discovered and exposed by the late Russian anti-corruption lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky and who authorised Magnitsky’s arrest on false charges and orchestrated his torture and murder in custody. In a letter addressed to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senator Cardin demanded that the State Department “immediately cancel and permanently withdraw the U.S visa privileges of all those involved in this crime, along with their dependents and family members.”(See http://csce.gov/)
Senator Cardin further wrote to Secretary Clinton:
“I am writing to request the immediate cancellation of U.S. visas held by a number of Russian officials and others who are involved in significant corruption in that country and who are responsible for last year’s torture and death in prison of the Russian anti-corruption lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, who testified against them.”
Комиссия США призывает ввести визовые санкции в отношении 60 российских должностных лиц, причастных к коррупции и репрессиям против Сергея Магнитского
April 26, 2010
Председатель Комиссии США по безопасности и сотрудничеству в Европе призывает ввести визовые санкции в отношении 60 российских должностных лиц, причастных к коррупции и репрессиям против Сергея Магнитского
26 апреля 2010 г. – Сегодня председатель Комиссии США по безопасности и сотрудничеству в Европе сенатор Бенджамин Кардин призвал к немедленному введению постоянных визовых санкций в отношении более 60 российских должностных лиц, которые участвовали в коррупционной схеме хищения 5,4 миллиардов рублей, обнаруженной юристом Сергеем Магнитским, и которые арестовали его по сфабрикованному обвинению и применяли пытки, приведшие к его смерти в следственном изоляторе. Сенатор Кардин потребовал “незамедлительно аннулировать и навсегда исключить возможность получения виз на въезд в США для всех лиц, причастных к вышеуказанным преступлениям, а также для их близких родственников”.
В письме, направленном Госсекретарю США Хиллари Клинтон, сенатор Кардин заявил: “Я обращаюсь к Вам с призывом немедленно отменить визы в США для целого ряда российских чиновников и иных лиц, которые участвуют в масштабной коррупции в этой стране и которые несут ответственность за применение пыток и смерть в следственном изоляторе в прошлом году Сергея Магнитского – российского юриста, противостоявшего коррупции и давшего свидетельские показания против этих чиновников”.
Telegraph: Russia called to probe police role in Magnitsky death
April 23, 2010
Mr Magnitsky, who represented Hermitage Capital Management, the hedge fund run by Bill Browder, died in prison after being held for 358 days without trial on tax evasion charges.
He had previously testified about the involvement of Russian police officers in the alleged theft of $230m (£150m) of taxpayer funds. An investigation was launched into his death following public outcry, but its focus was on the failure of the On Thursday, Lyudmila Alekseyeva, the founder of the independent Moscow Helsinki Group, called for an inquiry into the police officers alleged to have brought “the criminal case against Mr Magnitsky and used torture against him”.
The Wall Street Journal: Russia Criticized Over Jail Death Probe
April 23, 2010
Two prominent Russian human-rights advocates Thursday accused authorities of dragging their feet in the investigation of the jailhouse death in November of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer working for a U.S. investment fund.
Valery Borshchev, head of an independent advisory commission legally empowered to monitor human rights in prison, said prosecutors and other investigators haven’t responded as the law requires to a scathing report on Mr. Magnitsky’s case his panel issued in December.
That report accused investigators, judges and jail officials of deliberately subjecting Mr. Magnitsky to inhumane conditions and depriving him of vital medical care in an effort to pressure him into giving testimony that investigators sought. He died Nov. 16 at Moscow’s Butyrka prison after suffering gall stones.
The Moscow Times: Activists Say Magnitsky Was Murdered
April 23, 2010
Human rights activists are calling on authorities to open a murder inquiry into the death of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in pretrial detention in November.
“Magnitsky died of systematic torture and not of negligence,” Valery Borshchyov, of the Moscow Helsinki Group, told reporters Thursday.
The 37-year-old lawyer died in a detention center on Nov. 16 after officials repeatedly denied him medical treatment for illnesses that he developed while waiting nearly a year for his politically tainted tax trial to begin.
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