U.S. Senators Call on Secretary of State Clinton to Urgently Deny Entry to Two Russian Interior Ministry Generals in Magnitsky Case

November 10, 2011

Yes­ter­day, U.S. Sen­a­tors Roger Wicker and Ben­jamin Cardin requested the US Sec­re­tary of State, Hillary Clin­ton, to urgently review the eli­gi­bil­ity for entry into the United States of two Russ­ian Inte­rior Min­istry gen­er­als as a result of their involve­ment in the scan­dal sur­round­ing the vio­lent death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky in Russ­ian state custody.

Gen­er­als Tatiana Gerasi­mova and Niko­lai Shelepanov are sched­uled to arrive to Wash­ing­ton next week, which coin­cides with the sec­ond anniver­sary of Sergei Magnitsky’s death. The two gen­er­als, who hold the most senior posi­tions in the Inte­rior Ministry’s Inves­tiga­tive Depart­ment, have been over­see­ing the cover-up of Magnitsky’s wrong­ful arrest and tor­ture, and of his tes­ti­monies impli­cat­ing cor­rupt gov­ern­ment offi­cials, since his death two years ago.

“We under­stand that these offi­cials, Gen­er­als Tatiana Gerasi­mova and Niko­lai Shelepanov, are involved in the cyn­i­cal and sweep­ing cover-up of the tor­ture and mur­der of Russ­ian whistle­blower Sergei Mag­nit­sky as well as the cor­rup­tion he exposed…We urge you to imme­di­ately review any pos­si­ble visa appli­ca­tions sub­mit­ted by Gen­er­als Gerasi­mova and Shelepanov to ensure that their visit is in full com­pli­ance with all U.S. immi­gra­tion laws, prac­tices and pro­ce­dures,” said Sen­a­tors Wicker and Cardin.

The offi­cial rea­son for the Russ­ian gen­er­als’ visit to Wash­ing­ton is to dis­cuss intel­lec­tual prop­erty rights. How­ever, in light of the role of Gen­er­als Gerasi­mova and Shelepanov in the cover-up of Magnitsky’s tor­ture and mur­der in cus­tody, their eli­gi­bil­ity to enter the US will be put into ques­tion under recently enacted US laws, which ban entry to gross human rights abusers from abroad.

On 5 July 2011, the Russ­ian President’s Human Rights Coun­cil con­cluded that Mag­nit­sky had been arrested and detained ille­gally, by Inte­rior Min­istry offi­cers who had a clear con­flict of inter­est, after Mag­nit­sky had accused them of mas­sive $230 mil­lion tax rebate fraud.

On 6 July 2011, Gen­eral Gerasi­mova, in her capac­ity as the 1^st Deputy Head of the Russ­ian Inte­rior Ministry’s Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee, pub­licly dis­missed the find­ings of the President’s Human Rights Coun­cil. She claimed that all actions and deci­sions of Inte­rior Min­istry offi­cials under her com­mand in the Mag­nit­sky case were law­ful on the ground that they were sanc­tioned by Russ­ian pros­e­cu­tors and judges.

Gen­eral Shelepanov act­ing as Deputy Head of the Russ­ian Inte­rior Ministry’s Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee, signed a decree pro­long­ing the offi­cial inves­ti­ga­tions under the Mag­nit­sky Case, in spite of the find­ings of the Russ­ian President’s Human Rights Council’s experts that the case has been fab­ri­cated by the Russ­ian Inte­rior Min­istry and the Fed­eral Secu­rity Ser­vice (FSB). Gen­eral Shelepanov signed this decree on 4 August 2011, one month after the offi­cial pub­li­ca­tion of the report by the President’s Human Rights Coun­cil (on 5 July 2011).

On 9 August 2011, the Russ­ian Inte­rior Ministry’s Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee reopened its pros­e­cu­tion of Mr. Mag­nit­sky, despite the fact that he had been dead for nearly two years. The same Inte­rior Min­istry offi­cers who were involved in falsely arrest­ing and tor­tur­ing Mr. Mag­nit­sky in cus­tody, were appointed to this posthu­mous inves­ti­ga­tion of the vic­tim of their tor­ture. This was con­firmed by a let­ter to the Mag­nit­sky fam­ily signed by Inte­rior Min­istry offi­cer Lap­shov on 7 Octo­ber 2011. These actions were car­ried out under the imme­di­ate direc­tion of Gen­er­als Gerasi­mova and Shelepanov, as super­vis­ing officers.

Under this posthu­mous inves­ti­ga­tion, the offi­cers under com­mand of Gen­er­als Gerasi­mova and Shelepanov are now intim­i­dat­ing the Mag­nit­sky fam­ily by sum­mon­ing them for ques­tion­ing as “wit­nesses” (on mat­ters they had no involve­ment with or knowl­edge of), sub­ject­ing them to emo­tional dis­tress, as doc­u­mented in the 5 Sep­tem­ber 2011 com­plaint by Sergei Magnitsky’s mother with the Inte­rior Ministry.

On 6 Sep­tem­ber 2011, Lud­mila Alex­eeva, Chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Russia’s old­est human rights organ­i­sa­tion, con­demned these acts by the Russ­ian Inte­rior Min­istry as unlaw­ful pres­sure and intim­i­da­tion of the victim’s fam­ily, and vio­lat­ing the fun­da­men­tal norms of rule of law and human rights.

“Gen­eral Gerasi­mova and Gen­eral Shelepanov have been pro­vid­ing con­tin­u­ing assis­tance to those who tor­tured and killed Mr. Mag­nit­sky in the face of world-wide con­dem­na­tion of his treat­ment, includ­ing by the Coun­cil of Europe, the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment and Russ­ian and inter­na­tional human rights orga­ni­za­tions,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a 37-year old anti-corruption lawyer and out­side coun­sel for the Her­mitage Fund, was tor­tured to death in Russ­ian Inte­rior Min­istry cus­tody after he tes­ti­fied about the involve­ment of Inte­rior Min­istry offi­cials in the $230 mil­lion corruption.

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