Dutch Parliament challenges the legitimacy of the official Russian investigation into the death of Sergei Magnitsky and calls medieval the posthumous prosecution of a dead man

October 5, 2011

Yes­ter­day, in a par­lia­men­tary let­ter sent to Dutch For­eign Min­is­ter, Dutch law­mak­ers urged their gov­ern­ment to impose visa bans on Russ­ian offi­cials in Sergei Mag­nit­sky case. They also request­ed that the Dutch Min­is­ter dis­cuss­es joint steps towards Rus­sia in rela­tion to this case at the next meet­ing of the Euro­pean Council. 

In their let­ter, Dutch law­mak­ers stressed that in light of the recent events, it is hard to expect that Rus­sia allow a real inves­ti­ga­tion. The let­ter high­lights the fact that the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry had reject­ed the find­ings of Russ­ian President’s Human Rights Coun­cil which found that Mag­nit­sky was unlaw­ful­ly arrest­ed, beat­en before his death, and no one was held liable for this atrocity. 

Dutch law­mak­ers also labelled as a “medieval bar­barism” the resump­tion by the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry, 18 months after Sergei Magnitsky’s death, the pros­e­cu­tion against him — a man whom they false­ly arrest­ed and tor­tured to death.

“Are you aware of the Pres­i­den­tial Human Rights Com­mis­sion on July 5, inter alia, found that the arrest of Mag­nit­sky was ille­gal, that he may have beat­en him and that med­ical care was with­drawn from him. 

Are you aware that the Russ­ian Min­istry of Inte­ri­or on July 14 put these find­ings aside, and decid­ed not to pros­e­cute anyone?

Are you also aware that the Russ­ian judi­cial author­i­ties have decid­ed to resume per­se­cu­tion of Mr Mag­nit­sky and thus in man­ner of the medieval bar­barism have put a deceased vic­tim on trial?”

The Dutch law­mak­ers called upon Dutch For­eign Affairs Min­is­ter Uri Rosen­thal to deny Russ­ian offi­cials in the Mag­nit­sky case entry to the Nether­lands in accor­dance with the res­o­lu­tion unan­i­mous­ly adopt­ed by the Dutch Par­lia­ment in July this year. 

Comments

• Link