Russia Promotes Investigator Responsible for the Arrest and Death of Anti-corruption Lawyer Sergei Magnitsky Amid Sharp US Criticism of Impunity of Russian Officials

October 12, 2010

Russ­ian author­i­ties have pro­mot­ed the chief inves­ti­ga­tor respon­si­ble for the arrest and tor­ture to death in cus­tody of 37-year lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky who uncov­ered a US$230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion com­mit­ted by police offi­cials. Inves­ti­ga­tor Oleg Silchenko of the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry, who fal­si­fied mate­ri­als against Mag­nit­sky, pres­sured him to change his tes­ti­monies and refused Mag­nit­sky’s med­ical assis­tance requests, has been pro­mot­ed from Major to Lieu­tenant Colonel.

“This is a shame­ful response from the Russ­ian author­i­ties to the requests to bring to jus­tice Silchenko and oth­er offi­cials respon­si­ble for the arrest and tor­ture of Sergei Mag­nit­sky. The Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry rewards them for the mur­der of an anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer as a job well done, — said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal rep­re­sen­ta­tive. — It is time for the offi­cials who played a role in Sergei’s trag­ic death to be crim­i­nal­ly charged instead of pro­tect­ed by their colleagues.”

US Ambas­sador to the Orga­ni­za­tion for Secu­ri­ty and Co-oper­a­tion in Europe (OSCE) Ian Kel­ly slammed Rus­sia for the lack of account­abil­i­ty of offi­cials impli­cat­ed in $230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion and repres­sion and death of Mag­nit­sky. Speak­ing at the OSCE sum­mit on human rights in War­saw last week, he said:

“With­er­ing pub­lic­i­ty and inter­na­tion­al out­rage have thus far been pow­er­less to pierce the atmos­phere of impuni­ty that sur­rounds cor­rupt offi­cials and sti­fles the rule of law in this trag­ic case in which no one yet has been brought to justice.”

In ref­er­ence to the on-going impuni­ty in Rus­sia of all those impli­cat­ed by Mag­nit­sky in the $230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion case, US Ambas­sador Kel­ly said:

“In the case of Mr. Mag­nit­sky, a tax attor­ney impris­oned and denied any con­tact, either in per­son or by phone, with his wife and two young sons, a wide net of law enforce­ment offi­cers, pros­e­cu­tors, judges, a con­vict­ed mur­der­er, and even pri­vate attor­neys have been pub­licly, but not for­mal­ly, accused of corruption.”
US Ambas­sador Ian Kel­ly said that the trag­ic death of Mag­nit­sky in cus­tody, along with oth­er recent deaths, must serve as “solemn reminders of the human cost of a defi­cient crim­i­nal jus­tice system”.

In a recent pub­lic opin­ion poll con­duct­ed by an inde­pen­dent Lev­a­da cen­ter, 60% of Rus­sians said they sought an open inves­ti­ga­tion of police offi­cials impli­cat­ed in death of Mag­nit­sky and cor­rup­tion he uncov­ered. How­ev­er, so far, the author­i­ties have refused to even open a crim­i­nal case against the offi­cials, and none have been charged.

For his crimes in office, Silchenko is fac­ing requests for crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion from sev­er­al Russ­ian civ­il rights groups. In June 2010, the Moscow Bar Asso­ci­a­tion applied to Russ­ian Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Chai­ka to pros­e­cute Silchenko for the fal­si­fi­ca­tion of evi­dence and fraud -
http://www.advokatymoscow.ru/legal_regulation/apm_dokuments/zashita_advokatov_doc/hayretdinov/to_chayka.php

In March 2010, the Moscow Helsin­ki Group, a lead­ing Russ­ian human rights orga­ni­za­tion, request­ed that the Russ­ian State Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee pros­e­cute Silchenko and oth­er offi­cials in accor­dance with the UN Anti-tor­ture Con­ven­tion for the unlaw­ful arrest, tor­ture and mur­der of Magnitsky
http://www.rightsinrussia.info/home/hro-org-in-english‑1/torture/magnitsky;
http://russian-untouchables.com/docs/Alekseyeva-Complaint-Eng29Mar2010.pdf

In both cas­es, the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee refused to open a crim­i­nal case against Silchenko.
Ear­li­er, Silchenko’s actions in mount­ing pro­ceed­ings against Sergei Mag­nit­sky and oth­er Her­mitage lawyers and exec­u­tives, have been con­demned by the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe as an “emblem­at­ic case” of polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed abuse of the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem (http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/WorkingDocs/doc09/edocI1993.pdf).

The pro­mo­tion of Silchenko, one of the 60 offi­cials on the US Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion list of peo­ple to be banned from enter­ing the US, will spark alarm bells all over the world over the con­tin­ued impuni­ty of cor­rupt Russ­ian offi­cers who took an inno­cent life and who con­tin­ue to face no con­se­quences for their actions.
“We have been fol­low­ing the case very close­ly and are well aware that there has been no break­through in the inves­ti­ga­tion into Mr Mag­nit­sky’s death until now…We have to admit of course that despite the President’s rhetoric and despite the con­tin­u­ous domes­tic as well as inter­na­tion­al pres­sure, until date not one per­son has been offi­cial­ly charged with a crime in this case. Also, no fur­ther inquiries have been made into the cor­rup­tion case that Mr Mag­nistky was work­ing on pri­or to his death”, said the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion in a recent statement.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a lawyer for a US law firm Fire­stone Dun­can, who rep­re­sent­ed the Russ­ian com­pa­nies of the Her­mitage Fund, was arrest­ed and kept in cus­tody for near­ly 12 months after he tes­ti­fied about Russ­ian police involve­ment in the theft of his clien­t’s com­pa­nies and the embez­zle­ment of US$230 mil­lion those com­pa­nies had paid in tax­es that were abet­ted by police. Mag­nit­sky was sub­ject­ed to pres­sure and tor­ture in deten­tion to force him to change his tes­ti­mo­ny. Despite a dras­tic dete­ri­o­ra­tion in his health, and over 20 offi­cial fil­ings request­ing med­ical atten­tion, he was denied any med­ical help and died as a result of his treat­ment, aged 37, leav­ing a moth­er, a wife and two children.

For more on tor­ture and death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, visit:
http://russian-untouchables.com

State­ment by US Ambas­sador Kel­ly at:
http://www.osce.org/documents/osce/2010/10/46980_en.pdf

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