European Parliament Calls for Accountability of Russian Judges and Investigators Involved in the Torture of Anti-Corruption Lawyer Sergei Magnitsky

May 12, 2010

The Euro­pean Parliament’s Human Rights Sub­com­mit­tee Calls for Account­abil­i­ty of Russ­ian Judges and Inves­ti­ga­tors Involved in the Unlaw­ful Arrest and Tor­ture of Anti-Cor­rup­tion Lawyer

12 May 2010 – At the Euro­pean Parliament’s Sub­com­mit­tee on Human Rights seri­ous con­cerns have been raised over the per­se­cu­tion of Russ­ian anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky and the absence of any inves­ti­ga­tion into the Russ­ian judges and Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials involved in his unlaw­ful arrest, tor­ture and death in pre-tri­al deten­tion last year.

Hei­di Hau­ta­la, mem­ber of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment and Chair­woman of the Euro­pean Parliament’s Sub­com­mit­tee on Human Rights, raised the case of Magnitsky’s per­se­cu­tion at the Sub­com­mit­tee ses­sion that took place this Mon­day, 10 May 2010. She said: “The unlaw­ful arrest and tor­ture in deten­tion of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, car­ried out by offi­cers he had impli­cat­ed in the abuse of office and cor­rup­tion rep­re­sents one of the most impor­tant human rights cas­es. State offi­cials and judges respon­si­ble for his unlaw­ful arrest, tor­ture and death in cus­tody must be held account­able accord­ing to Russ­ian and inter­na­tion­al norms.”

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U.S. Congress urged to support visa sanctions and assets seizures targeting Russian officials involved in corruption and the death of Magnitsky

May 6, 2010

U.S. Con­gres­sion­al Human Rights Com­mis­sion Is Called to Sup­port Visa Sanc­tions and Asset Seizures against the Cor­rupt Russ­ian Offi­cials Involved in the Killing of Anti-Cor­rup­tion Lawyer

6 May 2010 – Today the U.S. Con­gres­sion­al Tom Lan­tos Human Rights Com­mis­sion has been urged to sup­port U.S. visa sanc­tions and assets seizures tar­get­ing Russ­ian offi­cials involved in cor­rup­tion and the per­se­cu­tion of a 37 year-old anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

The Com­mis­sion, which held a hear­ing on the state of judi­cial and law enforce­ment sys­tems in Rus­sia, heard tes­ti­mo­ny from Mr. William Brow­der, CEO of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment. He spoke about how Sergei Mag­nit­sky, who rep­re­sent­ed the Her­mitage Fund, tes­ti­fied about the involve­ment of Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers in the theft of $230 mil­lion from the Russ­ian state. Brow­der described how imme­di­ate­ly there­after, Mag­nit­sky was arrest­ed on false charges by the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers he had impli­cat­ed, kept hostage for 12 months and tor­tured to death. Despite the cru­el and inhu­man treat­ment he endured – described as “mod­ern-day Gulag” – and the “legal cyn­i­cism” of Russ­ian judges and inves­ti­ga­tors in his case who ignored or dis­missed his 450 com­plaints, Sergei Mag­nit­sky believed to the last day in the pos­si­bil­i­ty of jus­tice in Rus­sia. Mr. Brow­der testified:

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Senator Cardin Calls Upon Other Countries to Impose Visa Sanctions Against 60 Russian Officials

May 4, 2010

Sen­a­tor Cardin Calls Upon Oth­er Coun­tries to Fol­low U.S. Exam­ple and Impose Visa Sanc­tions Against 60 Russ­ian Offi­cials and Oth­ers Involved in the Tor­ture and Death of Sergei Magnitsky

4 May 2010 – The U.S. Sen­ate Com­mit­tee on For­eign Rela­tions has includ­ed in the offi­cial Sen­ate record the list of 60 Russ­ian offi­cials and oth­ers involved in a $230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion case and the tor­ture and death of 37-year-old lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky. (See: Tran­script of a Busi­ness Meet­ing of the U.S. Sen­ate Com­mit­tee on For­eign Rela­tions at: http://foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/042710.pdf, pages 50 – 52).

On 27 April 2010, the Sen­ate For­eign Rela­tions Com­mit­tee held a busi­ness meet­ing chaired by Sen­a­tor John Ker­ry, to dis­cuss the mark-ups of the U.S. State Depart­ment autho­ri­sa­tion bill. Dur­ing the meet­ing, Sen­a­tor Ben­jamin Cardin spoke about his request to the U.S. State Depart­ment to deny per­ma­nent­ly U.S. visas to over 60 Russ­ian offi­cials and oth­ers involved in a $230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion exposed by a Moscow-based lawyer for Her­mitage Cap­i­tal, Sergei Mag­nit­sky, his retal­ia­to­ry arrest on false charges by the same offi­cials he had accused and his sub­se­quent tor­ture and death in cus­tody. Sen­a­tor Cardin point­ed out that “these offi­cials remain unpun­ished and in a posi­tion of power.”

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Torture of Sergei Magnitsky in Russian Custody Condemned by U.S. Secretary of State in the 2009 State Department Human Rights Report on Russia

March 11, 2010

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tor­ture of Anti-Cor­rup­tion Lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky in Russ­ian State Cus­tody Con­demned by U.S. Sec­re­tary of State Clin­ton in the 2009 State Depart­ment Human Rights Report on Russia

11 March 2010 – Today, U.S. Sec­re­tary of State, Hillary Clin­ton, sub­mit­ted to the U.S. Con­gress the annu­al Coun­try Report on Human Rights Prac­tices in Rus­sia. The report con­demns in the strongest pos­si­ble terms the tor­ture of anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky in Russ­ian state cus­tody. Sergei Mag­nit­sky, who rep­re­sent­ed the Her­mitage Fund, was impris­oned after he tes­ti­fied about the involve­ment of Russ­ian police offi­cers in the theft of Her­mitage Fund’s Russ­ian com­pa­nies and $230 mil­lion of state funds. He was kept in cus­tody with­out tri­al for 12 months, denied med­ical care and died after being tor­tured in cus­tody. The report refers to his ille­gal impris­on­ment, tor­ture in deten­tion, and the repeat­ed attempts by law enforce­ment author­i­ties to com­pel him to make a false confession.

The report ini­tial­ly states “in Novem­ber for­mer Her­mitage lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky died in a Moscow prison where he was being held on tax eva­sion charges. It was wide­ly believed that the charges were fab­ri­cat­ed and that his impris­on­ment took place as a result of his tes­ti­mo­ny in a cor­rup­tion case against gov­ern­ment offi­cials”.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a 37-year-old father of two, died after 358 days in deten­tion on 16 Novem­ber 2009. Pres­i­dent Medvedev sub­se­quent­ly launched an inves­ti­ga­tion into his death. Prison author­i­ties con­nect­ed to his deten­tion have been fired, how­ev­er, the inves­ti­ga­tors, pros­e­cu­tors and judges direct­ly respon­si­ble for his arrest and deten­tion have, to date, not been brought to justice.

The report cen­sures the Russ­ian author­i­ties for the med­ical tor­ture of Mag­nit­sky and their attempt to cov­er up his death. “Sergei Mag­nit­sky died in a Moscow prison in a case of what some observers con­sid­ered to be delib­er­ate med­ical neglect… After a year in pre­tri­al deten­tion, Mag­nit­sky devel­oped an infec­tion in his pan­creas but was refused med­ical treat­ment and died. The offi­cial report of his cause of death was heart fail­ure, which was wide­ly con­sid­ered to be a false diag­no­sis intend­ed to hide the deci­sion to deny him med­ical treat­ment.”

The report fur­ther crit­i­cis­es the use of tor­ture for the pur­pose of forc­ing Mag­nit­sky to make false tes­ti­mo­ny against him­self and his client, Her­mitage Cap­i­tal. It remarks “A num­ber of human rights activists believed Magnitsky’s death to have been either delib­er­ate or the result of an attempt to pres­sure him to change his tes­ti­mo­ny against Kuznetsov and Kar­pov [two Min­istry of Inte­ri­or officials].”

Bill Brow­der, CEO of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal, com­ment­ed, “Sergei Mag­nit­sky was arrest­ed for speak­ing out against cor­rup­tion in Rus­sia. He was an ordi­nary man who died an extra­or­di­nary hero for refus­ing to aban­don his belief in the rule of law. This report is a strong call for those offi­cials respon­si­ble for Sergei’s death to be imme­di­ate­ly brought to justice.”

Jami­son Fire­stone, Man­ag­ing Part­ner of Fire­stone Dun­can, the law firm where Mag­nit­sky worked, also stat­ed, “This report con­firms the true hor­ror of what Sergei expe­ri­enced, his false arrest, and the extent to which his basic human rights were vio­lat­ed. It reaf­firms the urgent need for Pres­i­dent Medvedev ‘s inves­ti­ga­tion to be full and trans­par­ent, and for its out­comes are being mon­i­tored by inter­na­tion­al organisations.”

The report has been deliv­ered to the Speak­er of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and the Sen­ate For­eign Rela­tions Committee.

Link to offi­cial copy of report
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/eur/136054.htm

Fur­ther quotes from the report
“On Novem­ber 17, 37-year-old lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky died in the infir­mary of Moscow’s Butyrsky Prison. Mag­nit­sky had worked as a lawyer for Her­mitage Cap­i­tal, an invest­ment fund that accused Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials Arty­om Kuznetsov and Pavel Kar­pov of steal­ing 5.4 bil­lion rubles ($179 mil­lion) in a tax fraud scheme. After Mag­nit­sky gave tes­ti­mo­ny in court in 2008 against Kuznetsov and Kar­pov, offi­cials charged and arrest­ed him on tax eva­sion charges that many observers believed were fab­ri­cat­ed. After a year in pre­tri­al deten­tion, Mag­nit­sky devel­oped an infec­tion in his pan­creas but was refused med­ical treat­ment and died. The offi­cial report of his cause of death was heart fail­ure, which was wide­ly con­sid­ered to be a false diag­no­sis intend­ed to hide the deci­sion to deny him med­ical treat­ment. A num­ber of human rights activists believed Magnitsky’s death to have been either delib­er­ate or the result of an attempt to pres­sure him to change his tes­ti­mo­ny against Kuznetsov and Kar­pov. In the after­math of Mag­nit­sky’s death, there were a num­ber of offi­cial inves­ti­ga­tions into treat­ment of pris­on­ers, and more than 20 offi­cials in the prison sys­tem were fired. In Decem­ber, the Jus­tice Min­istry announced a for­mal crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion into Mag­nit­sky’s death, but no one had been crim­i­nal­ly charged by year’s end.”

“On Feb­ru­ary 10, Pres­i­dent Medvedev recon­sti­tut­ed the Human Rights Coun­cil, with Pam­filo­va still at the head. Its mem­ber­ship con­tin­ued to include promi­nent human rights activists strong­ly crit­i­cal of the gov­ern­men­t’s human rights record. Medvedev held meet­ings with the coun­cil in April and in Novem­ber. Dur­ing the Podra­binek con­tro­ver­sy, Pam­filo­va took a pub­lic stance defend­ing Podra­binek’s right to free expres­sion and suc­ceed­ed in remov­ing the pres­sure on the jour­nal­ist. When the coun­cil met with Medvedev in Novem­ber, Pam­filo­va attacked the gov­ern­ment over the Sergei Mag­nit­sky case, and stat­ed, “A sud­den death in a deten­tion cen­ter is the pro­fes­sion­al dis­ease of Russ­ian busi­ness­men.” This quote appeared on the Krem­lin Web­site in the tran­script of the meet­ing and was also broad­cast on REN-TV.”

For fur­ther information:
+ 44 20 7440 1777

info@lawandorderinrussia.org
http://www.lawandorderinrussia.org

WSJ: Russia Fires Prison Officials Amid Inquiry Into Lawyer’s Death

December 11, 2009

MOSCOW — Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Dmit­ry Medvedev fired sev­er­al top prison offi­cials after an inter­nal inves­ti­ga­tion found pro­ce­dures were vio­lat­ed in the treat­ment of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a lawyer who died in a Moscow jail await­ing tri­al last month, a top offi­cial said Friday.

The sack­ings fall short, how­ev­er, of the broad­er inquiry into alleged police and judi­cial cor­rup­tion that Mr. Mag­nit­sky’s for­mer col­leagues have called for.

“Nobody is look­ing at why Sergei was put in prison in the first place and why his con­di­tions were made so bad,” said Jami­son Fire­stone, man­ag­ing part­ner of the Moscow law firm where Mr. Mag­nit­sky worked. “It’s a total cover-up.”

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