British Politician Calls for End to Russia’s “Putin-lag” on Magnitsky Case

November 18, 2010

The Rt Hon Dr Denis Mac­Shane, MP, called upon British Prime Min­is­ter David Cameron to raise with Russ­ian Prime Min­is­ter Putin the case of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, the 37-year old Russ­ian anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer tor­tured to death in police cus­tody a year ago.

The Rt Hon Denis Mac­Shane said:

“Today I have tabled Par­lia­men­tary Ques­tions ask­ing David Cameron to raise the Mag­nit­sky case when he goes to Moscow as the dead lawyer was work­ing for a British firm and rep­re­sent­ing British cit­i­zens and there­fore the British prime min­is­ter should raise these issues with the Russ­ian Prime Min­is­ter, Mr Putin.”

“Our duty is firm­ly and with­out fear to keep remind­ing the Russ­ian author­i­ties that with wealth and a desire to have a say in world affairs comes respon­si­bil­i­ty. The fullest inves­ti­ga­tion into Mag­nit­sky’s death would be a good place to start”

Speak­ing at the House of Com­mons on Tues­day night on the one-year anniver­sary of Magnitsky’s death, Mac­Shane said that the death of Mag­nit­sky in cus­tody of police­men he impli­cat­ed in $230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion is a prime exam­ple that the rule of law does not exist in today’s Rus­sia. Rather, it indi­cates that the coun­try has recre­at­ed a mod­ern-day Gulag under the Putin regime, called a “Putin­lag.”

Mac­Shane host­ed Tues­day night’s glob­al pre­miere at the UK Par­lia­ment of “Jus­tice for Sergei,” a unique 52-minute doc­u­men­tary about Magnitsky’s life and death. Speak­ing about the sig­nif­i­cance of the Jus­tice for Sergei pre­miere, Mac­Shane said:

“The anniver­sary of the death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky is a som­bre reminder that rule of law can­not be said to exist in Rus­sia. It is a remark­able film. We saw this hap­py man, a pro­fes­sion­al lawyer, cheer­ful with friends and fam­i­ly reduced by his incar­cer­a­tion in the new gulag — should we call it the Putin­lag? — to the pale shad­ow of a human being until final­ly the Russ­ian state sys­tem brought his life to an end.”

Car­la Fer­st­man from REDRESS, a UK-based human rights orga­ni­za­tion sup­port­ing tor­ture sur­vivors, said about the Jus­tice of Sergei campaign:

“Sergei Mag­nit­sky did what many in Rus­sia thought was unthink­able – to stand up for what he knew was right despite the con­se­quences. The Russ­ian sys­tem failed him, and what is impor­tant now on the anniver­sary of his death is to com­mit to fight­ing impuni­ty for the abom­inable treat­ment he received and that oth­ers like him con­tin­ue to receive. Rus­sia has rat­i­fied the UN Con­ven­tion against Tor­ture and is a part of the Euro­pean Con­ven­tion on Human Rights which out­laws tor­ture in all its forms. Let us hold the Russ­ian Gov­ern­ment to these fun­da­men­tal commitments.”

Sir Tony Bren­ton, for­mer UK Ambas­sador to Rus­sia, noted:

“The death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky is an appalling indict­ment of some parts of the Russ­ian judi­cial sys­tem. It is impor­tant for Rus­sia, as it is for the wider world, that they clean this poi­son out. Giv­en the clear British dimen­sion to this case, I hope that the British author­i­ties will be no less active than oth­ers to that end.”

The pre­miere of Jus­tice for Sergei was part of the unprece­dent­ed screen­ing of the movie that took place on the same day at the nation­al par­lia­ments of the US, Cana­da, Ger­many, UK, Esto­nia and at the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment in Brus­sels. At these par­lia­men­tary screen­ings, politi­cians, schol­ars and human rights activists protest­ed the impuni­ty of Russ­ian offi­cials respon­si­ble for the arrest and tor­ture of Mag­nit­sky to death. One year since his death, no one has been charged or convicted.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky (8 April 1972 – 16 Novem­ber 2009), an out­side lawyer for the Her­mitage Fund, dis­cov­ered that Russ­ian police were involved in mis­ap­pro­pri­at­ing his client’s invest­ment com­pa­nies and embez­zling $230 mil­lion of pub­lic funds through the largest tax refund fraud in Russ­ian his­to­ry. Mag­nit­sky tes­ti­fied against the state offi­cials involved, and in ret­ri­bu­tion they arrest­ed him, detained him for 12 months with­out tri­al and tor­tured him to with­draw his tes­ti­mo­ny. Despite the sys­tem­at­ic phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal tor­ture, Mag­nit­sky refused to change his tes­ti­mo­ny. He died on 16 Novem­ber 2009 at the age of 37 leav­ing a moth­er, wife and two children.

For more infor­ma­tion on the The Rt Hon Dr Denis Mac­Shane, MP for the Rother­ham Con­stituen­cy see:

http://www.denismacshane.org.uk/

For more infor­ma­tion on the cor­rup­tion Mag­nit­sky dis­cov­ered and his tor­ture in Russ­ian police cus­tody visit:
www.russian-untouchables.com

See “Jus­tice for Sergei”, a doc­u­men­tary about the life and death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky at:
www.justiceforsergei.com

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