Investigation into the Death of Sergey Magnitskiy Must be Public

November 24, 2009

PRESS RELEASE

Inves­ti­ga­tion into the Death of Sergey Mag­nit­skiy Must be Public

24 Novem­ber 2009 – Today, Pres­i­dent Medvedev announced an inves­ti­ga­tion into the death of anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer, Sergey Mag­nit­skiy, who died in sus­pi­cious cir­cum­stances at a Moscow prison. Mr Mag­nit­skiy was arrest­ed and per­se­cut­ed by Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials, against whom he had tes­ti­fied about their involve­ment in large scale corruption.

“Sergey Magnitskiy’s death is a tragedy that has touched every­one,” said William Brow­der, CEO of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal. “Sergey Mag­nit­skiy gave his life for the ideals he believed in. He was a brave and hon­ourable man who believed in the rule of law in Rus­sia. It is every­one’s respon­si­bil­i­ty to make sure that the same tragedy can nev­er be repeat­ed. Until today, there has been a com­plete cov­er up of the crimes by police offi­cials Sergey exposed, indi­cat­ing there will be great pres­sure to cov­er up the cir­cum­stances lead­ing to his death. The inves­ti­ga­tion into his death must be car­ried out open­ly, pub­licly and transparently. ”

Jami­son Fire­stone, head of the law firm where Mr Mag­nit­skiy worked said: “Over 35 com­plaints have been sub­mit­ted regard­ing police par­tic­i­pa­tion in the theft from the bud­get which Sergey Mag­nit­skiy uncov­ered and report­ed. In each case these com­plaints have been inves­ti­gat­ed by the very same Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials who were involved in the crimes and who lat­er arrest­ed Mag­nit­skiy.  The same cov­er up should not be allowed to occur with Pres­i­dent Medvedev’s inves­ti­ga­tion. The per­pe­tra­tors of state theft uncov­ered by Sergey Mag­nit­skiy are the same peo­ple who are respon­si­ble for his death and they must be brought to justice.”

On 18 Novem­ber, Sergey’s lawyers request­ed the Prosecutor’s Office to open an inves­ti­ga­tion into his death. For five days no action was tak­en. Sergey’s lawyers are con­cerned that in the mean­time cru­cial evi­dence regard­ing the cir­cum­stances lead­ing to his death may have been destroyed. An indi­ca­tion of this is that many hand-writ­ten diaries and notes, kept by Sergey in prison have already gone missing.

Sergey Mag­nit­skiy had been detained on fab­ri­cat­ed charges with­out tri­al for a year and died on 16 Novem­ber 2009.

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