Russian General Prosecutor Rejects Request from Magnitsky Family to Cease His Prosecution Two Years After His Death

November 22, 2011

he Russ­ian Gen­eral Prosecutor’s Office has refused to stop the pros­e­cu­tion of Sergei Mag­nit­sky two years after his death. In addi­tion, the Russ­ian author­i­ties have refused to recuse from the cur­rent crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion the Inte­rior Min­istry offi­cers who were respon­si­ble for his tor­ture and death in cus­tody. This infor­ma­tion was revealed in a let­ter from 8 Novem­ber 2011 signed by V. Ignashin, deputy chief of Gen­eral Prosecutor’s Office Divi­sion for Par­tic­u­larly Impor­tant Cases, to Magnitsky’s fam­ily lawyer, Niko­lai Gorokhov.

“Your peti­tion con­tain­ing rea­sons to cease the crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion of Magnitsky’s rel­a­tives and stat­ing no con­fi­dence to inves­ti­ga­tors on the crim­i­nal case has been con­sid­ered… As part of the probe, we found no cir­cum­stances that exclude the par­tic­i­pa­tion of the inves­ti­ga­tors in this crim­i­nal proceeding…Given this, there are no law­ful rea­sons to under­take mea­sures of pros­e­cu­to­r­ial reac­tion to recuse the inves­ti­ga­tion team from the case,” said V. Ignashin in his for­mal reply.

The Russ­ian President’s Human Rights Coun­cil has con­cluded that Inte­rior Min­istry offi­cers pros­e­cut­ing Sergei Mag­nit­sky were in gross con­flict of inter­est because of the Magnitsky’s tes­ti­mony prior to his arrest about their com­plic­ity in the $230 mil­lion theft.

Com­ment­ing on the response from the Gen­eral Prosecutor’s Office, Her­mitage Cap­i­tal rep­re­sen­ta­tive said:

“There is no prece­dent in mod­ern legal his­tory to pros­e­cute a dead man. The Russ­ian Gen­eral Prosecutor’s Office is spit­ting in the face of Pres­i­dent Medvedev’s own Human Rights Coun­cil by reject­ing their find­ings. Step by step, this group of cor­rupt Russ­ian offi­cials is brin­ing into ques­tion the entire legit­i­macy of the Russ­ian judi­cial system.”

In May 2011, Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Medvedev ordered the Gen­eral Pros­e­cu­tor Chaika to strengthen over­sight over the Mag­nit­sky case. Shortly after­wards, Gen­eral Pros­e­cu­tor Office found no wrong-doing in the actions of the Inte­rior Min­istry offi­cers who falsely arrested, tor­tured and killed Sergei Mag­nit­sky and who have been named in numer­ous peti­tions to open a tor­ture and mur­der investigation

Pros­e­cu­tor Ignashin who has refused to cease the posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion of Mag­nit­sky and harass­ment of his fam­ily, became known last week when he refused the court’s request for pro­vi­sion of doc­u­ments. The doc­u­ments were requested by Magnitsky’s col­league, Jami­son Fire­stone, in the defama­tion pro­ceed­ing against him by Pros­e­cu­tor Peche­gin, who tried to deny his role in the Mag­nit­sky case in spite of ample evi­dence show­ing his sig­na­tures on the doc­u­ments in Sergei Mag­nit­sky case file.

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