European Home Affairs Commissioner Calls for the Investigation of Russian Interior Ministry Officers for Corruption and the Murder of Sergei Magnitsky

May 26, 2010

Today at a meet­ing with Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­is­ter Rashid Nur­galiev and Russ­ian Jus­tice Min­is­ter Alexan­der Kono­val­ov, the Euro­pean Home Affairs Com­mis­sion­er Cecil­ia Malm­ström raised alarm and indig­na­tion over the con­tin­ued impuni­ty of Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers impli­cat­ed by Russ­ian lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky in the theft of $230 mil­lion from the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment and in these same offi­cers’ involve­ment in Magnitsky’s sub­se­quent mur­der in cus­tody six months ago. The dis­cus­sion formed part of the 12^th meet­ing of the EU-Rus­sia Per­ma­nent Part­ner­ship Coun­cil on Free­dom, Secu­ri­ty and Jus­tice held in Kazan, Russia. 

“The per­se­cu­tion of Sergei Mag­nit­sky by the offi­cials he had tes­ti­fied against is an emblem­at­ic case of the mis­use of office and cor­rup­tion in the police force from which both Euro­pean and Russ­ian busi­ness­es suf­fer and the lives of ordi­nary peo­ple are ruined. Bring­ing it up at the EU-Rus­sia Coun­cil demon­strates how impor­tant it is at the high­est polit­i­cal lev­el of the EU. We will con­tin­ue to do every­thing to ensure that there is jus­tice for Mag­nit­sky and the cause he fought for,]” said [spokesper­son for] Com­mis­sion­er Malmström.

At the meet­ing with Russ­ian Min­is­ters Nur­galiev and Kono­val­ov, the EU del­e­ga­tion raised seri­ous con­cerns about the absence of any inves­ti­ga­tion into the Inte­ri­or Min­istry Offi­cers’ cor­rup­tion. In par­tic­u­lar, they asked why Yuri Dra­guntsov, Head of the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry Inter­nal Secu­ri­ty Depart­ment, had refused to inves­ti­gate com­plaints about the involve­ment of Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers, Lt Col Artem Kuznetsov and Major Pavel Kar­pov – who had been named by Sergei Mag­nit­sky – for the abuse of office and the theft of $230 mil­lion of state funds, and why that same Lt Col Kuznetsov was lat­er allowed to “inves­ti­gate him­self” in the theft of $230 mil­lion in which he was implicated. 

The EU del­e­ga­tion also raised ques­tions over how the arrest and deten­tion of Mag­nit­sky was allowed to be car­ried out by Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers who had a con­flict of inter­est, and despite mul­ti­ple com­plaints. In par­tic­u­lar, they asked why, one month after Sergei Mag­nit­sky tes­ti­fied against Lt Col Kuznetsov for cor­rup­tion, that same Lt Col Kuznetsov and his sub­or­di­nates were appoint­ed by Oleg Logunov (then Deputy Head of the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee) to ini­ti­ate charges against Mag­nit­sky, and why the approval for Magnitsky’s arrest and 12-month deten­tion relied main­ly on state­ments from the same Lt Col Kuznetsov’s sub­or­di­nates (A.O. Droganov, A.A. Krechetov and D. Tolchin­sky), despite Lt Col Kuznetsov’s clear con­flict of interest.

Fur­ther­more, the EU del­e­gates shared with their Russ­ian coun­ter­parts a list of ques­tions about the depri­va­tion of med­ical care and the con­ceal­ment of Sergei Magnitsky’s state of health from his lawyers in the final hours of his life. Par­tic­u­lar empha­sis was placed on the role of Oleg Silchenko, the chief Inte­ri­or Min­istry inves­ti­ga­tor on Magnitsky’s case, who refused Magnitsky’s requests for an ultra­sound exam­i­na­tion filed in August 2009. On the last day of Magnitsky’s life, inves­ti­ga­tor Silchenko refused lawyers access to Mag­nit­sky and to any infor­ma­tion about his state of health, claim­ing it was an “inter­nal mat­ter of the inves­ti­ga­tion,” his con­di­tion was “not seri­ous” and he was “unable to leave his cell” at the same time when Mag­nit­sky, accord­ing to deten­tion cen­ter offi­cials, was being trans­port­ed from Butyr­ka to a health unit at Matrosskaya Tishi­na deten­tion centre.

In April 2010, the Moscow Helsin­ki Group, an inde­pen­dent human rights organ­i­sa­tion, demand­ed the open­ing of a crim­i­nal case into the mur­der of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, accus­ing Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials (Inves­ti­ga­tor Silchenko, Lt. Col. Kuznetsov and his sub­or­di­nates A. O. Droganov, A. A. Krechetov and D. Tolchin­sky, among oth­ers) of com­plic­i­ty in the crimes under sev­er­al arti­cles of the Russ­ian Crim­i­nal Code (“Mur­der com­mit­ted to con­ceal anoth­er crime – theft of state bud­get funds”; “Mur­der com­mit­ted with extra bru­tal­i­ty”; “Tor­ture”; “Forc­ing Tes­ti­mo­ny”; “Abuse of office”). Despite the high-pro­file nature of the case, no inves­ti­ga­tion what­so­ev­er has been ini­ti­at­ed nor have any pros­e­cu­tions been brought against these Inte­ri­or Min­istry officers.

Mag­nit­sky coura­geous­ly tes­ti­fied about the theft of his client’s com­pa­nies and $230 mil­lion of state bud­get funds by cor­rupt Russ­ian offi­cials, includ­ing Lt. Col. Kuznetsov and Major Kar­pov, in Octo­ber 2008. Imme­di­ate­ly after­wards, he was arrest­ed on false charges by those same offi­cials, refused bail and tor­tured over the next 12 months to with­draw his tes­ti­mo­ny. Mag­nit­sky refused and instead on 13 Octo­ber 2009, he repeat­ed his tes­ti­mo­ny about the involve­ment of Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers in the theft of state bud­get funds in which he also accused Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers of orga­niz­ing his unlaw­ful arrest and the fab­ri­ca­tion of a case against him in ret­ri­bu­tion for his tes­ti­mo­ny about the $230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion. One month lat­er, on 16 Novem­ber 2009, Mag­nit­sky was found dead in a Moscow pre-tri­al deten­tion cen­ter. In his final hours, Mag­nit­sky stat­ed that peo­ple were try­ing to mur­der him. At the funer­al, bruis­es were clear­ly seen on his body. Magnitsky’s fam­i­ly was denied their request for an inde­pen­dent autopsy. 

The 12^th meet­ing of the EU-Rus­sia Per­ma­nent Part­ner­ship Coun­cil on Free­dom, Secu­ri­ty and Jus­tice took place today in Kazan. Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­is­ter Nur­galiev and Jus­tice Min­is­ter Kono­val­ov head­ed the Russ­ian del­e­ga­tion. Com­mis­sion­er Malm­ström rep­re­sent­ed the EU delegation.

The EU-Rus­sia rela­tion­ship is for­mal­ly con­duct­ed with­in the Part­ner­ship and Coop­er­a­tion Agree­ment. One of the four Com­mon Spaces is the Com­mon Space of Free­dom, Secu­ri­ty and Jus­tice as a cor­ner­stone for devel­op­ing future coop­er­a­tion in this area.
(http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/external/russia/fsj_external_russia_en.htm)

Ms Cecil­ia Malm­ström is the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion­er respon­si­ble for Home Affairs. Since 2007, Ms Malm­ström has also been Vice-Pres­i­dent of the Lib­er­al Par­ty of Swe­den, and between 2006 and 2009, she was the Swedish Min­is­ter for EU Affairs.
(see more at: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/malmstrom/welcome/default_en.htm)

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