New Information Emerges on Russian General Shelepanov Who US Senators Requested to Ban From Entering the US Last Week For His Role in the Magnitsky Case

November 21, 2011

New infor­ma­tion has emerged from the Sergei Mag­nit­sky crim­i­nal case file show­ing that Gen­eral Niko­lai Shelepanov of the Russ­ian Inte­rior Min­istry was per­son­ally respon­si­ble for the denial of fam­ily vis­its to Sergei Mag­nit­sky in cus­tody. Ear­lier this month, US Sen­a­tors Cardin and Wicker ques­tioned Gen­eral Shelepanov’s eli­gi­bil­ity to enter the United States over his role in the Mag­nit­sky case.

Vedo­mosti, the Russ­ian news­pa­per, pub­lished pre­vi­ously unknown requests writ­ten by Sergei Mag­nit­sky seek­ing per­mis­sion for fam­ily vis­its and the offi­cial response signed by Gen­eral Shelepanov deny­ing Magnitsky’s request
(http://www.vedomosti.ru/politics/news/1424555/zamnachalniku_sd_mvd_stavyat_v_vinu_otkaz_v_svidaniyah).

Gen­eral Shelepanov was due to attend meet­ings in Wash­ing­ton last week on the invi­ta­tion from the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice, but stated he was aban­don­ing his plans amid the scan­dal over his US visa due to his “work load.”

The new evi­dence shows that Gen­eral Shelepanov in his capac­ity as the Deputy Chief of the Inte­rior Ministry’s Inves­tiga­tive Depart­ment per­son­ally refused Sergei Magnitsky’s peti­tions for fam­ily vis­its. Gen­eral Shelepanov also sanc­tioned refusals for fam­ily vis­its issued by his sub­or­di­nate, Inte­rior Min­istry Inves­ti­ga­tor Oleg Silchenko.

Gen­eral Niko­lai Shelepanov stated in an offi­cial response signed on 10 July 2009:

“Hereby I order to deny the com­plaint by S.L. Mag­nit­sky request­ing… to issue a writ­ten con­sent for a visit with his mother, N.N. Mag­nit­skaya”
(http://russian-untouchables.com/rus/docs/D347.pdf).

This response was writ­ten in the eighth month of Sergei Magnitsky’s deten­tion. Up until that point, the inves­ti­ga­tors had denied Sergei Mag­nit­sky all con­tact with his family.

In an inter­view with the Voice of Amer­ica on 10 Novem­ber 2011, Gen­eral Shelepanov tried to down­play his role in the Magnitsky’s tor­ture, saying:

“This is a nor­mal crim­i­nal case that is being inves­ti­gated here, in Russia.”

In Magnitsky’s com­plaint filed to the Deputy Inte­rior Min­is­ter Alexei Anichin, he said that inves­ti­ga­tors arbi­trar­ily denied his right for fam­ily visits:

“Since Novem­ber 2008 I have been kept in custody…During all this time I have not been allowed a sin­gle visit with any of my rel­a­tives. …As a sole rea­son to deny me fam­ily vis­its, it has been put to me that “the inves­ti­ga­tors deem it inex­pe­di­ent”,” wrote Sergei Mag­nitsy in his com­plaint on 24 June 2009 (http://russian-untouchables.com/rus/docs/D346.pdf).

Magnitsky’s requests for vis­its with his wife, mother, and chil­dren were denied by Inves­ti­ga­tor in charge of his deten­tion, Major Oleg Silchenko dur­ing a year in pre-trial deten­tion. The new evi­dence from the Mag­nit­sky case file now makes it clear that these refusals were sanc­tioned by Gen­eral Niko­lai Shelepanov.

In his 10 July 2009 Decree, Gen­eral Shelepanov wrote to Sergei Magnitsky:

“On 15 June 2009, a peti­tion was received in the Inte­rior Ministry’s Inves­tiga­tive Depart­ment from defen­dant S.L. Mag­nit­sky that was dated 3 June 2009 request­ing a per­mis­sion for a visit with his mother… The decree to fully deny this peti­tion issued by senior inves­ti­ga­tor of espe­cially impor­tant cases O.F. Silchenko is law­ful and jus­ti­fied because it meets the require­ments of the law set out for its form and contents.”

The actions of Silchenko, Anichin and She­la­panov for­mally con­tra­dict the Russ­ian Law on Deten­tion, which sets out rights for fam­ily vis­its. Accord­ing to the law, each detainee is enti­tled to two fam­ily vis­its per month, each last­ing up to three hours. Accord­ing to Arti­cle 18 of the Law on Deten­tion, an inves­ti­ga­tor must issue a con­sent to each visit.

In his com­plaint of the arbi­trary depri­va­tion of fam­ily vis­its by the Inte­rior Min­istry, Sergei Mag­nit­sky said:

“The law does not allow to refuse fam­ily vis­its on arbi­trary and unrea­soned grounds… The fail­ure by the inves­ti­ga­tor to spec­ify the ground for these refusals…shows that the inves­ti­ga­tor thinks that he is enti­tled to act arbi­trar­ily and in abuse of author­ity when decid­ing whether to per­mit me a fam­ily visit or not. Such an abu­sive restric­tion of my con­sti­tu­tional right is unac­cept­able in a law-based state …and is a form of treat­ment degrad­ing my human dig­nity, because it causes moral pains to me and my fam­ily, pains that are not jus­ti­fied by the goals set out by the Con­sti­tu­tion (p.3 Arti­cle 55 of the Russ­ian Constitution).”

Gen­eral Shelepanov’s name and his role in the Mag­nit­sky case first became known last week fol­low­ing a request by U.S. Sen­a­tors Wicker and Cardin to the U.S. Sec­re­tary of State to check his eli­gi­bil­ity to enter the US
(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203537304577028320517166292.html?KEYWORDS=magnitsky).

Gen­eral Shelepanov was not pre­vi­ously listed on the US Helsinki Commission’s list of 60 Russ­ian offi­cials to be banned entry into the United States.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky was kept in cus­tody by the same Russ­ian Inte­rior Min­istry offi­cers he had tes­ti­fied against for their role in the theft of his client’s com­pa­nies and $230 mil­lion from the Russ­ian trea­sury, the largest sin­gle embez­zle­ment of pub­lic funds in Russ­ian his­tory. Sergei Mag­nit­sky was mur­dered in Russ­ian gov­ern­ment cus­tody on 16 Novem­ber 2009.

A for­mal peti­tion by Sergei Magnitsky’s mother to open a tor­ture and mur­der inves­ti­ga­tion against high-ranking Russ­ian offi­cials and 11 judges filed in Sep­tem­ber with the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee has been denied.

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