// Press Releases (in English)

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Takes Steps Towards Launching an International Investigation into the Murder of Sergei Magnitsky

April 25, 2012

Yes­ter­day, at the Spring Ses­sion of the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe (PACE) meet­ing in Stras­bourg, 69 mem­bers of Par­lia­ment from 29 coun­tries signed a motion enti­tled: “Refus­ing impunity for the killers of Sergei Mag­nit­sky”. The motion calls for a ‘ded­i­cated report’ to inves­ti­gate the death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky and return the find­ings to the Assem­bly at a later date this year. (more…)

European Commission Calls for Magnitsky’s Torturers to Be Brought to Justice

April 20, 2012

At a mid­day Euro­pean Com­mis­sion brief­ing today, the spokesman for the Euro­pean Jus­tice Com­mis­sioner Cecilia Malm­strom made a strong state­ment call­ing upon the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion to bring to jus­tice the tor­tur­ers of late whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky and to stop his posthu­mous prosecution.

Com­mis­sioner Malmstrom’s spokesper­son said:

“You know the case of Mr Mag­nit­sky, the lawyer who was killed. This is an issue which has been raised by Com­mis­sioner Malm­strom on a num­ber of occa­sions and every time that she has met the Russ­ian author­i­ties and she has called on the Russ­ian author­i­ties to shed full light on this extremely con­tro­ver­sial issue.” (more…)

Heavy-Weight Sponsors Submit New Strengthened Magnitsky Bill to the U.S. House of Representatives

April 20, 2012

Tonight, a new strength­ened ver­sion of the Mag­nit­sky Bill was sub­mit­ted to the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives call­ing for asset freezes and visa bans on any­one involved in the per­se­cu­tion of late whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment con­spir­acy he had uncov­ered and the sub­se­quent cover-up of these crimes. The Bill also imposes sim­i­lar sanc­tions on other gross human rights abusers.

“Sergei Mag­nit­sky was bru­tally tor­tured and allowed to die in deten­tion because he had the courage to stand up to Russ­ian author­i­ties on behalf of the truth. This bill hon­ors his mem­ory by hold­ing account­able not only those indi­vid­u­als respon­si­ble for his abuse and death, but also oth­ers who have com­mit­ted gross human rights vio­la­tions. Enact­ing the bill would pow­er­fully demon­strate that the pro­tec­tion of fun­da­men­tal rights and free­doms is a cor­ner­stone of U.S. for­eign pol­icy,” said Con­gress­man McGov­ern, Co-chairman of the U.S. Con­gres­sional Tom Lan­tos Human Rights Com­mis­sion and the orig­i­nal spon­sor of the Bill in the pre­vi­ous Con­gress. (more…)

Magnitsky’s Mother Identifies Gross Negligence in the Investigation of Her Son’s Death, Following the Acquittal of one of the Doctors

April 19, 2012

Fol­low­ing the recent acquit­tal of one of the two prison doc­tors charged in the death of Russ­ian whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky in state cus­tody, his mother has filed a 39-page com­plaint out­lin­ing over 50 points of inves­tiga­tive neg­li­gence and irreg­u­lar­i­ties in the case mate­ri­als point­ing to the state cover-up of the actual cir­cum­stances of Mr Magnitsky’s arrest, ill-treatment and mur­der in cus­tody, as well the motives to kill him as an “incon­ve­nient” witness.

“Inves­ti­ga­tors have cov­ered up the cruel repres­sion of my son for his stance against cor­rupt offi­cials whom he had exposed act­ing as part of a crim­i­nal con­spir­acy through which they for many years have been steal­ing bil­lions of rubles from the Russ­ian bud­get,” said Magnitsky’s mother in her com­plaint filed with the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee. (more…)

Magnitsky Case Files Identify New Information on Russian Officials Involved In $230 Million Tax Fraud Cover-Up

April 18, 2012

New files from the posthu­mous case files against Sergei Mag­nit­sky reveal the name of the main “expert” wit­ness used to absolve Inte­rior Min­istry offi­cers from lia­bil­ity for the $230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion scheme uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky. The expert was Maxim Tre­ti­akov, head of the legal depart­ment of Moscow Tax Office No 28, the office at the cen­tre of the cor­rupt tax refunds scheme.

In return for his “friendly tes­ti­mony”, the Inte­rior Min­istry offi­cers who them­selves had a con­flict of inter­est, exon­er­ated him and his col­leagues and claimed that the $230 mil­lion tax refund was exe­cuted by a “sawmill employee” and a “job­less” indi­vid­ual, and that all bank records prov­ing oth­er­wise had burned in a truck explo­sion and can­not be traced. As a result, offi­cials from the Moscow Tax Office Num­ber 28 were able to con­tinue with their cor­rupt scheme, and were recently shown to have exe­cuted $1 bil­lion in fraud­u­lent tax refunds over a four-year period from 2006 – 2010. Fam­i­lies of the tax and Inte­rior Min­istry offi­cers involved in the scheme have become $47 mil­lion richer after the thefts and have been shown to invest in lux­u­ri­ous for­eign real estate and for­eign bank accounts. (more…)

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