Sergei Magnitsky’s Mother is Summoned for Questioning Against Her Will by Russian Interior Ministry for the Second Time on December 28th

December 28, 2011

The Russian Interior Ministry has appointed a new investigator to interrogate Sergei Magnitsky’s relatives in the unprecedented case opened against a man who has been dead for two years. Several appeals by Magnitsky’s relatives to stop the posthumous prosecution have been denied by the Russian authorities. Under the case, the Russian Interior Ministry has been pressuring Magnitsky’s relatives to give up their right to seek justice for Magnitsky’s death in custody in exchange for ceasing their posthumous prosecution against him.

Last week Magnitsky’s mother received a telegram from investigator Boris Kibis of the Interior Ministry’s Department for the Central Federal District, summoning her for questioning today, December 28 to 15-00. As an alternative to the continuing prosecution of her son, investigator Kibis suggested that Magnitsky’s mother waive her right to rehabilitate her son.

“I refuse to knowingly participate in illegal investigative actions in a criminal case, renewed in respect of my son, because I do not trust the investigator who does not obey the law and does not respect the rights of citizens. I ask again for protection for me and all other relatives of Sergei from this persecution”, said Natalia Magnitskaya in a statement addressed to the chief of the Russian Interior Ministry’s Department for Central Federal District Mr Solovyov.

The summons for questioning received by Natalia Magnitskaya was signed by Investigator Boris Kibis, who was appointed to the case by Tatiana Gerasimova, First Deputy Chief of the Interior Ministry’s Investigative Department. Ms Gerasimova was named in a recent letter by U.S. Senators to be excluded from the U.S. for her role in the Magnitsky case.

Earlier, the same investigator, Kibis, rejected the findings of the President Medvedev’s Human Rights Council, which found that Magnitsky’s arrest was illegal and his rights were violated by investigators with a clear conflict of interest. In a formal statement, Investigator Kibis described the President’s Human Rights Council report as “irrelevant” and “inadmissable”. Investigator Kibis also found no violations in the actions of his predecessor investigator Oleg Silchenko, who played a key role in Sergei Magnitsky’s torture and denial of medical care in detention.

Along with the summons to appear before the Interior Ministry, investigator Boris Kibis notified Magnitsky’s mother that she was assigned a status of a “legal representative of a deceased defendant,” which is a legal term which has no basis under Russian law.

“Your summons is illegal. Equally illegal is the specially invented status of “legal representative of the deceased defendant”. I have never requested to be recognized as such. Giving me this status against my will is illegal and unacceptable,” said Ms. Magnitskaya.

The lawyer for Ms. Magnitskaya Nicholai Gorokhov appealed the actions of investigator Kibis to the Russian Prosecutor General. In his complaint filed on December 20, 2011, Mr Gorokhov stated:

“The telegram from investigator Boris Kibis suggests that investigators in the “Magnitsky case” have reached a new low. Now, if there is no existing law that the investigators can use to further their goals, they just devise a new law for a given situation…Actions by Investigator Kibis show that he continues to illegally prosecute both Magnitsky and persecute Magnitsky’s close relatives, acting contrary to the law or on the basis of non-existent law.”

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