European Home Affairs Commissioner Calls for the Investigation of Russian Interior Ministry Officers for Corruption and the Murder of Sergei Magnitsky

May 26, 2010

Today at a meeting with Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev and Russian Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov, the European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström raised alarm and indignation over the continued impunity of Russian Interior Ministry officers implicated by Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in the theft of $230 million from the Russian government and in these same officers’ involvement in Magnitsky’s subsequent murder in custody six months ago. The discussion formed part of the 12th meeting of the EU-Russia Permanent Partnership Council on Freedom, Security and Justice held in Kazan, Russia.

“The persecution of Sergei Magnitsky by the officials he had testified against is an emblematic case of the misuse of office and corruption in the police force from which both European and Russian businesses suffer and the lives of ordinary people are ruined. Bringing it up at the EU-Russia Council demonstrates how important it is at the highest political level of the EU. We will continue to do everything to ensure that there is justice for Magnitsky and the cause he fought for,]” said [spokesperson for] Commissioner Malmström.

At the meeting with Russian Ministers Nurgaliev and Konovalov, the EU delegation raised serious concerns about the absence of any investigation into the Interior Ministry Officers’ corruption. In particular, they asked why Yuri Draguntsov, Head of the Russian Interior Ministry Internal Security Department, had refused to investigate complaints about the involvement of Interior Ministry officers, Lt Col Artem Kuznetsov and Major Pavel Karpov – who had been named by Sergei Magnitsky – for the abuse of office and the theft of $230 million of state funds, and why that same Lt Col Kuznetsov was later allowed to “investigate himself” in the theft of $230 million in which he was implicated.

The EU delegation also raised questions over how the arrest and detention of Magnitsky was allowed to be carried out by Russian Interior Ministry officers who had a conflict of interest, and despite multiple complaints. In particular, they asked why, one month after Sergei Magnitsky testified against Lt Col Kuznetsov for corruption, that same Lt Col Kuznetsov and his subordinates were appointed by Oleg Logunov (then Deputy Head of the Russian Interior Ministry Investigative Committee) to initiate charges against Magnitsky, and why the approval for Magnitsky’s arrest and 12-month detention relied mainly on statements from the same Lt Col Kuznetsov’s subordinates (A.O. Droganov, A.A. Krechetov and D. Tolchinsky), despite Lt Col Kuznetsov’s clear conflict of interest.

Furthermore, the EU delegates shared with their Russian counterparts a list of questions about the deprivation of medical care and the concealment of Sergei Magnitsky’s state of health from his lawyers in the final hours of his life. Particular emphasis was placed on the role of Oleg Silchenko, the chief Interior Ministry investigator on Magnitsky’s case, who refused Magnitsky’s requests for an ultrasound examination filed in August 2009. On the last day of Magnitsky’s life, investigator Silchenko refused lawyers access to Magnitsky and to any information about his state of health, claiming it was an “internal matter of the investigation,” his condition was “not serious” and he was “unable to leave his cell” at the same time when Magnitsky, according to detention center officials, was being transported from Butyrka to a health unit at Matrosskaya Tishina detention centre.

In April 2010, the Moscow Helsinki Group, an independent human rights organisation, demanded the opening of a criminal case into the murder of Sergei Magnitsky, accusing Interior Ministry officials (Investigator Silchenko, Lt. Col. Kuznetsov and his subordinates A. O. Droganov, A. A. Krechetov and D. Tolchinsky, among others) of complicity in the crimes under several articles of the Russian Criminal Code (“Murder committed to conceal another crime – theft of state budget funds”; “Murder committed with extra brutality”; “Torture”; “Forcing Testimony”; “Abuse of office”). Despite the high-profile nature of the case, no investigation whatsoever has been initiated nor have any prosecutions been brought against these Interior Ministry officers.

Magnitsky courageously testified about the theft of his client’s companies and $230 million of state budget funds by corrupt Russian officials, including Lt. Col. Kuznetsov and Major Karpov, in October 2008. Immediately afterwards, he was arrested on false charges by those same officials, refused bail and tortured over the next 12 months to withdraw his testimony. Magnitsky refused and instead on 13 October 2009, he repeated his testimony about the involvement of Interior Ministry officers in the theft of state budget funds in which he also accused Interior Ministry officers of organizing his unlawful arrest and the fabrication of a case against him in retribution for his testimony about the $230 million corruption. One month later, on 16 November 2009, Magnitsky was found dead in a Moscow pre-trial detention center. In his final hours, Magnitsky stated that people were trying to murder him. At the funeral, bruises were clearly seen on his body. Magnitsky’s family was denied their request for an independent autopsy.

The 12th meeting of the EU-Russia Permanent Partnership Council on Freedom, Security and Justice took place today in Kazan. Russian Interior Minister Nurgaliev and Justice Minister Konovalov headed the Russian delegation. Commissioner Malmström represented the EU delegation.

The EU-Russia relationship is formally conducted within the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. One of the four Common Spaces is the Common Space of Freedom, Security and Justice as a cornerstone for developing future cooperation in this area.
(http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/external/russia/fsj_external_russia_en.htm)

Ms Cecilia Malmström is the European Commissioner responsible for Home Affairs. Since 2007, Ms Malmström has also been Vice-President of the Liberal Party of Sweden, and between 2006 and 2009, she was the Swedish Minister for EU Affairs.
(see more at: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/malmstrom/welcome/default_en.htm)

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