Torture of Sergei Magnitsky in Russian Custody Condemned by U.S. Secretary of State in the 2009 State Department Human Rights Report on Russia

March 11, 2010

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tor­ture of Anti-Cor­rup­tion Lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky in Russ­ian State Cus­tody Con­demned by U.S. Sec­re­tary of State Clin­ton in the 2009 State Depart­ment Human Rights Report on Russia

11 March 2010 – Today, U.S. Sec­re­tary of State, Hillary Clin­ton, sub­mit­ted to the U.S. Con­gress the annu­al Coun­try Report on Human Rights Prac­tices in Rus­sia. The report con­demns in the strongest pos­si­ble terms the tor­ture of anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky in Russ­ian state cus­tody. Sergei Mag­nit­sky, who rep­re­sent­ed the Her­mitage Fund, was impris­oned after he tes­ti­fied about the involve­ment of Russ­ian police offi­cers in the theft of Her­mitage Fund’s Russ­ian com­pa­nies and $230 mil­lion of state funds. He was kept in cus­tody with­out tri­al for 12 months, denied med­ical care and died after being tor­tured in cus­tody. The report refers to his ille­gal impris­on­ment, tor­ture in deten­tion, and the repeat­ed attempts by law enforce­ment author­i­ties to com­pel him to make a false confession.

The report ini­tial­ly states “in Novem­ber for­mer Her­mitage lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky died in a Moscow prison where he was being held on tax eva­sion charges. It was wide­ly believed that the charges were fab­ri­cat­ed and that his impris­on­ment took place as a result of his tes­ti­mo­ny in a cor­rup­tion case against gov­ern­ment offi­cials”.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a 37-year-old father of two, died after 358 days in deten­tion on 16 Novem­ber 2009. Pres­i­dent Medvedev sub­se­quent­ly launched an inves­ti­ga­tion into his death. Prison author­i­ties con­nect­ed to his deten­tion have been fired, how­ev­er, the inves­ti­ga­tors, pros­e­cu­tors and judges direct­ly respon­si­ble for his arrest and deten­tion have, to date, not been brought to justice.

The report cen­sures the Russ­ian author­i­ties for the med­ical tor­ture of Mag­nit­sky and their attempt to cov­er up his death. “Sergei Mag­nit­sky died in a Moscow prison in a case of what some observers con­sid­ered to be delib­er­ate med­ical neglect… After a year in pre­tri­al deten­tion, Mag­nit­sky devel­oped an infec­tion in his pan­creas but was refused med­ical treat­ment and died. The offi­cial report of his cause of death was heart fail­ure, which was wide­ly con­sid­ered to be a false diag­no­sis intend­ed to hide the deci­sion to deny him med­ical treat­ment.”

The report fur­ther crit­i­cis­es the use of tor­ture for the pur­pose of forc­ing Mag­nit­sky to make false tes­ti­mo­ny against him­self and his client, Her­mitage Cap­i­tal. It remarks “A num­ber of human rights activists believed Magnitsky’s death to have been either delib­er­ate or the result of an attempt to pres­sure him to change his tes­ti­mo­ny against Kuznetsov and Kar­pov [two Min­istry of Inte­ri­or officials].”

Bill Brow­der, CEO of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal, com­ment­ed, “Sergei Mag­nit­sky was arrest­ed for speak­ing out against cor­rup­tion in Rus­sia. He was an ordi­nary man who died an extra­or­di­nary hero for refus­ing to aban­don his belief in the rule of law. This report is a strong call for those offi­cials respon­si­ble for Sergei’s death to be imme­di­ate­ly brought to justice.”

Jami­son Fire­stone, Man­ag­ing Part­ner of Fire­stone Dun­can, the law firm where Mag­nit­sky worked, also stat­ed, “This report con­firms the true hor­ror of what Sergei expe­ri­enced, his false arrest, and the extent to which his basic human rights were vio­lat­ed. It reaf­firms the urgent need for Pres­i­dent Medvedev ‘s inves­ti­ga­tion to be full and trans­par­ent, and for its out­comes are being mon­i­tored by inter­na­tion­al organisations.”

The report has been deliv­ered to the Speak­er of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and the Sen­ate For­eign Rela­tions Committee.

Link to offi­cial copy of report
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/eur/136054.htm

Fur­ther quotes from the report
“On Novem­ber 17, 37-year-old lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky died in the infir­mary of Moscow’s Butyrsky Prison. Mag­nit­sky had worked as a lawyer for Her­mitage Cap­i­tal, an invest­ment fund that accused Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials Arty­om Kuznetsov and Pavel Kar­pov of steal­ing 5.4 bil­lion rubles ($179 mil­lion) in a tax fraud scheme. After Mag­nit­sky gave tes­ti­mo­ny in court in 2008 against Kuznetsov and Kar­pov, offi­cials charged and arrest­ed him on tax eva­sion charges that many observers believed were fab­ri­cat­ed. After a year in pre­tri­al deten­tion, Mag­nit­sky devel­oped an infec­tion in his pan­creas but was refused med­ical treat­ment and died. The offi­cial report of his cause of death was heart fail­ure, which was wide­ly con­sid­ered to be a false diag­no­sis intend­ed to hide the deci­sion to deny him med­ical treat­ment. A num­ber of human rights activists believed Magnitsky’s death to have been either delib­er­ate or the result of an attempt to pres­sure him to change his tes­ti­mo­ny against Kuznetsov and Kar­pov. In the after­math of Mag­nit­sky’s death, there were a num­ber of offi­cial inves­ti­ga­tions into treat­ment of pris­on­ers, and more than 20 offi­cials in the prison sys­tem were fired. In Decem­ber, the Jus­tice Min­istry announced a for­mal crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion into Mag­nit­sky’s death, but no one had been crim­i­nal­ly charged by year’s end.”

“On Feb­ru­ary 10, Pres­i­dent Medvedev recon­sti­tut­ed the Human Rights Coun­cil, with Pam­filo­va still at the head. Its mem­ber­ship con­tin­ued to include promi­nent human rights activists strong­ly crit­i­cal of the gov­ern­men­t’s human rights record. Medvedev held meet­ings with the coun­cil in April and in Novem­ber. Dur­ing the Podra­binek con­tro­ver­sy, Pam­filo­va took a pub­lic stance defend­ing Podra­binek’s right to free expres­sion and suc­ceed­ed in remov­ing the pres­sure on the jour­nal­ist. When the coun­cil met with Medvedev in Novem­ber, Pam­filo­va attacked the gov­ern­ment over the Sergei Mag­nit­sky case, and stat­ed, “A sud­den death in a deten­tion cen­ter is the pro­fes­sion­al dis­ease of Russ­ian busi­ness­men.” This quote appeared on the Krem­lin Web­site in the tran­script of the meet­ing and was also broad­cast on REN-TV.”

For fur­ther information:
+ 44 20 7440 1777

info@lawandorderinrussia.org
http://www.lawandorderinrussia.org

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