The recent death of a Moscow lawyer has caused an outcry in Russia and the U.K. The lawyer was working for a British investment firm and claimed to have evidence that Russian officials perpetrated a massive tax fraud. Stephen Beard reports.
На каждого человека есть своя пытка, говорил один старый, еще сталинских времен зэк. Какую пытку избрали для Сергея Магнитского, почему и кто «заказал» 37-летнего юриста — разбирался The New Times
Sergei Magnitsky’s Replies to the Russian Interior Ministry’s Press Conference:
“My persecution has been ordered as retribution.”
26 November 2009 – Yesterday, the Russian Interior Ministry’s Investigative Committee asserted at a press conference in Moscow that Sergei Magnitsky was not subjected to any pressure during his 12-month detention awaiting charges, that all of the necessary evidence for the case had been gathered and that the investigations into his case had been completed.
Two months before his death, Sergei Magnitsky wrote a petition to Investigator Oleg Silchenko of the Russian Interior Ministry’s Investigative Committee. Magnitsky stated that investigators had organized his unlawful persecution despite knowing his innocence, and they had systematically falsified evidence in his case file and in the file used to obtain court approval for his arrest and continued detention. Magnitsky stated,
“Investigators have persecuted me for my refusal to testify falsely against myself and others under Case 153123. … The administration at detention centers has cooperated with the investigators to create unbearable conditions for me in their facilities.”
On 11 September 2009, lawyers acting for Sergei Magnitsky also filed a complaint with Russian General Prosecutor Yuri Chaika.
Magnitsky’s petition to the Interior Ministry read:
“The criminal investigation against me bears all of the signs of being done pursuant to an executive order, and it is savage in character. The investigation is being conducted in gross violation of existing law. On many occasions I have discovered the investigators brazenly fabricating and inventing false evidence against me. As a result, my advocates and I have repeatedly sought to replace these investigators. All of the actions of Interior Ministry officials whom we discovered violating Russian law were challenged, and we reported them to their superiors and to the court.”
Sergei Magnitsky stated that the investigators will never be able to prove their allegations in a fair and open trial:
“My position is obviously irritating for the investigators. It is impossible to justify the charges brought against me, and I assert again that I did not commit any offenses, and the documents collected by the investigators prove my innocence. The so-called “expert” opinions and reports were made by consultants to the Interior Ministry who have obvious conflicts of interest. These reports contain false statements and reach far-fetched conclusions invented to please the investigators. If this case is ever heard in court, these experts will simply be unable to justify their conclusions during cross-examination by the defense.”
Sergei Magnitsky stated that on many occasions he was pressured to give false statements against William Browder, CEO of Hermitage Capital, and each time he refused, the pressure on him increased:
“Realizing the invalidity of their claims, the investigators arranged for physical and psychological pressure to be exerted upon me in order to suppress my will and to force me to make accusations against myself and other persons. In particular, the investigators repeatedly proposed that I testify against William Browder in exchange for “a suspended sentence during the trial” and freedom. Every time, when I repeatedly rejected these propositions by the investigators pushing me to be dishonest, the conditions of my detention become worse and worse.”
Sergei Magnitsky stated that the pressure exerted upon him became extreme:
“For the period of my detention in custody from 24 November 2008, I communicated with many prisoners and staff at the detention centers, and I have become fully aware of the typical operating procedures in these centers. I have never seen any example such as mine, when a prisoner during nine months of his detention in custody was moved between three investigatory detention centers and was transferred between an incalculable quantity of cells.”
One month before his death, on 13 October 2009, Magnitsky stated in front of an investigator and his defense counsel that Investigator Silchenko, Lieutenant Colonel Kuznetsov and his subordinates had orchestrated an illegal proceeding against him on false grounds, in direct retaliation for his testimony detailing the involvement of Interior Ministry officials in the theft of state funds.
“The criminal proceeding against me is in contravention of Article 6 of the Russian Criminal Procedural Code and is an act of repression. Its aim is to punish me for the help I provided to my client in relation to the investigation into the theft of Rilend, Mahaon and Parfenion – the Russian companies owned by my client. When I was providing assistance to my client, it became known to me that Russian Interior Ministry officials may be complicit in the theft of the companies and that the stolen companies were used by the perpetrators to steal 5.4 billion roubles from the state budget – the amount of taxes my client had paid at the time when they had control over these companies.”
Five days before his death, on 11 November 2009, Sergei Magnitsky filed another petition stating that the evidence in his case file was falsified and that the case materials were illegally altered after the investigation had been formally concluded on 20 October 2009, in breach of Russian legal procedure.
On 18 November 2009, two days after Sergei Magnitsky’s death, the Moscow Tverskoi district court was to hear two complaints about serious breaches of criminal procedure by the Interior Ministry. If this complaint had been accepted by the court, the investigation of Sergei Magnitsky’s case would have to be resumed and Magnitsky would have been released on 24 November 2009 (the one-year anniversary of his detention, the maximum possible period of detention without trial under Russian law).
Yesterday, lawyers of Sergei Magnitsky sent an application to the Russian President and the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor’s Office requesting an investigation into the actions of Interior Ministry officials in relation to the illegal persecution of Magnitsky and the falsification of evidence in his case.
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Sergei Magnitsky’s Replies to the Russian Interior Ministry’s Press Conference: “My persecution has been ordered as retribution.”
26 November 2009 – Yesterday, the Russian Interior Ministry’s Investigative Committee asserted at a press conference in Moscow that Sergei Magnitsky was not subjected to any pressure during his 12-month detention awaiting charges, that all of the necessary evidence for the case had been gathered and that the investigations into his case had been completed.
Two months before his death, Sergei Magnitsky wrote a petition to Investigator Oleg Silchenko of the Russian Interior Ministry’s Investigative Committee. Magnitsky stated that investigators had organized his unlawful persecution despite knowing his innocence, and they had systematically falsified evidence in his case file and in the file used to obtain court approval for his arrest and continued detention. Magnitsky stated,
“Investigators have persecuted me for my refusal to testify falsely against myself and others under Case 153123. … The administration at detention centers has cooperated with the investigators to create unbearable conditions for me in their facilities.”
Ответ Сергея Магнитского СКМВДРФ: «Уголовное преследование, развернутое против меня, носит заказной характер, и по своей сути является расправой»
26 ноября 2009 г. – Вчера, на пресс-конференции СКМВДРФ распространил информацию о том, что на Сергея Магнитского не оказывалось никакого давления, что дело его было завершено и доказательства собраны.
В распоряжении адвокатов Сергея Магнитского находится копия заявление, поданного им 11 сентября 2009 года, за два месяца до гибели, следователю СКМВДРФ Сильченко О.Ф. В нем Сергей Магнитский заявил, что в нарушение базовых принципов правосудия следствием осуществляется преследование заведомо невиновного лица. Он указал на фальсификацию доказательств по его уголовному делу в целом, а также в отношении материалов, представленных следствием в суд для получения необоснованной санкции на его содержание под стражей. Он заявил об «организации в отношении меня [Сергея Магнитского] со стороны следствия преследования за отказ оговаривать себя и других лиц по уголовному делу № 153123» и «содействии следствию со стороны администрации следственных изоляторов в организации в отношении меня преследования путем создания мне невыносимых условий пребывания в этих учреждениях».
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