Special Assistant to President Obama Meets with Mother of Sergei Magnitsky

May 28, 2010

U.S. Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Advis­er McFaul Meets Natalia Mag­nit­skaya, Moth­er of Anti-Cor­rup­tion Lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky Unlaw­ful­ly Detained and Killed in Russ­ian Custody

28 May 2010 – Yes­ter­day, Michael McFaul, Spe­cial Assis­tant to U.S. Pres­i­dent Oba­ma and Senior Direc­tor of Russ­ian and Eurasian Affairs at the U.S. Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil, met in Moscow with Natalia Mag­nit­skaya, moth­er of the late anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer, Sergei Mag­nit­sky, who was killed in a Moscow pre-tri­al deten­tion cen­ter six months ago.

McFaul empha­sized the case of Sergei Mag­nit­sky among “atro­cious, trag­ic things” dur­ing a dis­cus­sion of human rights, prison reform and migra­tion issues at a meet­ing yes­ter­day of the US-Rus­sia Civ­il Soci­ety Work­ing Group, which he co-chairs with First Deputy Head of the Russ­ian Pres­i­den­tial Admin­is­tra­tion, Vladislav Surkov. The meet­ing took place yes­ter­day in Vladimir, Russia.

McFaul also dis­cussed the case of Sergei Mag­nit­sky at a meet­ing with Valery Borschev, chair of Moscow Prison Over­sight Com­mis­sion (MPOC), on May 26. The MPOC issued a damn­ing report ear­li­er this year into the death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky stat­ing that dur­ing Magnitsky’s pre-tri­al deten­tion he was sub­ject­ed to phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal pres­sure, tor­tur­ous con­di­tions and deprived of med­ical care by Inte­ri­or Min­istry inves­ti­ga­tors in order to obtain false tes­ti­monies from him. The report also indi­cat­ed that prison offi­cials and doc­tors gave entire­ly con­tra­dic­to­ry accounts of what hap­pened to Mag­nit­sky in cus­tody in the last hours of his life. The MPOC con­clud­ed that those offi­cials were delib­er­ate­ly con­ceal­ing the truth.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a lawyer for the Her­mitage Fund, was arrest­ed and held for 12 months in tor­tur­ous con­di­tions with­out tri­al by the Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers against whom he had tes­ti­fied for their involve­ment in the abuse of office and the theft of $230 mil­lion bud­get funds. One month after Mag­nit­sky repeat­ed his tes­ti­mo­ny against those offi­cers and accused his cap­tors from the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry of organ­is­ing his unlaw­ful arrest on false grounds, keep­ing him hostage in iso­la­tion from fam­i­ly and soci­ety, organ­is­ing cru­el and degrad­ing treat­ment and depriv­ing him of med­ical care, he was found dead in an iso­la­tion cell. His fam­i­ly was denied an inde­pen­dent autop­sy. Accord­ing to the MPOC, in the last hours of his life, Mag­nit­sky stat­ed that some­one was try­ing to mur­der him. Bruis­es were seen on his body at the funeral.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky was the only son of Ms Mag­nit­skaya. He left a wife and two children.

For more infor­ma­tion please contact:

For fur­ther information:

+44 20 7440 1777
info@lawandorderinrussia.org

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