The Russian Investigative Committee is Forced by Foreign Visa Sanctions to Indict 2 out of 60 Officials on the Magnitsky List

November 1, 2011

Press Release
For Imme­di­ate Distribution

The Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee is Forced by For­eign Visa Sanc­tions to Indict 2 out of 60 Offi­cials on the Mag­nit­sky List

Novem­ber 1, 2011 – Today, the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee announced that it had “com­pleted” the inves­ti­ga­tion into the death in cus­tody of 37-year old anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, by indict­ing two med­ical offi­cials of the Butyrka deten­tion cen­ter in Moscow.

The Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee said they had no other sus­pects but “in case any other per­sons involved in caus­ing the death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky were to be iden­ti­fied, they would also be held crim­i­nally liable.”

“Today the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee has charged 2 out of 60 offi­cials on the US Helsinki Com­mis­sion list of Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials involved in the multibillion-dollar cor­rup­tion uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky, and his sub­se­quent arrest, tor­ture and death in cus­tody. The names of the remain­ing 58 offi­cials are widely known, except as it turns out, for the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

“After two years of inves­ti­ga­tion, Russ­ian author­i­ties are bring­ing charges against the two lowest-level offi­cials out of all those respon­si­ble for this unprece­dented crime. These charges are highly ques­tion­able as they allege fail­ure to diag­nose dis­eases (dia­betes and hepati­tis), despite there being no record that Sergei suf­fered from these ailem­nts dur­ing his life,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

“In the mean­time, the Russ­ian author­i­ties con­tinue to deprive the victim’s fam­ily of access to his per­sonal records and med­ical archive, and have denied the family’s repeated requests for an inde­pen­dent med­ical study into the cause of death,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

“The Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee is charg­ing two Butyrka med­ical offi­cials with neg­li­gence, and unin­ten­tional care­less­ness, despite the over­whelm­ing evi­dence that Sergei Mag­nit­sky had been deprived of med­ical care in cus­tody delib­er­ately, and inhu­manely,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

“The Russ­ian author­i­ties con­tinue to ignore the find­ings of the Pres­i­dent Medvedev’s Human Rights Coun­cil. The author­i­ties have failed to launch an inves­ti­ga­tion into who and why fab­ri­cated the case against Mag­nit­sky and who orga­nized his tor­ture in cus­tody,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

Last April, the U.S. Helsinki Com­mis­sion pub­lished a list of 60 Russ­ian offi­cials from the Inte­rior Min­istry, Fed­eral Secu­rity Ser­vice, Pros­e­cu­tor Office, Tax Ser­vice, court sys­tem and the penal sys­tem shown by doc­u­men­tary evi­dence to be involved in the embez­zle­ment of $230 mil­lion of pub­lic funds and the repres­sion of Sergei Mag­nit­sky who blew the whis­tle on this theft.

In July this year, the Russ­ian President’s Human Rights Coun­cil found that Sergei Mag­nit­sky was arrested and detained on false charges by offi­cers with con­flict of inter­est, in breach of both the Russ­ian law and the Euro­pean Human Rights Con­ven­tion. The Human Rights Coun­cil also noted that there was a wide-spread resis­tance to inves­ti­gate the crimes com­mit­ted against Mag­nit­sky and to pros­e­cute offi­cials com­plicit in the mas­sive cor­rup­tion Mag­nit­sky had exposed. Four months since the pub­li­ca­tion of the Council’s con­clu­sions, the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee still has failed to launch an inves­ti­ga­tion into the crimes noted by the Coun­cil or charge any of the offi­cials named in the Council’s report.

This Sep­tem­ber, Sergei Magnitsky’s mother filed a peti­tion with the Russ­ian State Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee sub­mit­ting new evi­dence that Sergei Mag­nit­sky had been delib­er­ately tor­tured and then mur­dered in cus­tody. Mrs Magnitskaya’s report named high-ranking offi­cials respon­si­ble for Magnitsky’s wrong­ful arrest and abuse, includ­ing the Russ­ian Gen­eral Pros­e­cu­tor and 19 judges, and called for their imme­di­ate pros­e­cu­tion. None of the offi­cials named in the peti­tion from the Magnitsky’s mother have been charged.

“The intro­duc­tion of visa and eco­nomic sanc­tions in rela­tion to Russ­ian offi­cials in the Mag­nit­sky case has now forced Russ­ian author­i­ties to go after the low-level execu­tors, how­ever, there is no jus­tice until all of those involved in the crime against Mag­nit­sky are brought to an open trial,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

“The charges must be brought against all those who fab­ri­cated a crim­i­nal case against Sergei Mag­nit­sky, who orga­nized his ille­gal arrest, fal­si­fied evi­dence to hold him in cus­tody, who cre­ated his tor­tur­ous con­di­tions, moved him from cell to cell, in the worst con­di­tions, extended his cus­tody, who in the last hours of his life instead of treat­ing him, beat him with rub­ber batons, those who were involved in embez­zling bil­lions of rubles of pub­lic funds and who had a direct inter­est in silenc­ing Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a lawyer who was inves­ti­gat­ing the theft,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion please contact:

Her­mitage Cap­i­tal
Tel: +44 207 440 17 77
Email: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
Web­site: http://lawandorderinrussia.org

Face­book: http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI
Twit­ter: @KatieFisher__
Live­jour­nal: http://hermitagecap.livejournal.com/

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