In European Parliament Testimony, William Browder Exposes 10 Facts Proving the Russian Government Cover-Up of Sergei Magnitsky’s Murder

May 27, 2011

Tes­ti­fy­ing yes­ter­day at the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment, William Brow­der, CEO of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment, pre­sent­ed ten facts which showed the mas­sive, insti­tu­tion­al cov­er-up engi­neered to pro­tect the gov­ern­ment offi­cials who were respon­si­ble for the tor­ture and mur­der in state cus­tody of his Russ­ian lawyer, 37-year old Sergei Magnitsky.

Mr. Brow­der tes­ti­fied before a meet­ing of the Euro­pean Par­lia­men­t’s Del­e­ga­tion to the EU-Rus­sia Par­lia­men­tary Coop­er­a­tion Com­mit­tee. Mr. Brow­der also tes­ti­fied before the Euro­pean Parliament’s Sub­com­mit­tee on Human Rights.

Address­ing the Euro­pean law­mak­ers, Mr. Brow­der said:

“It is a clear and emblem­at­ic case study of the depth and reach of cor­rup­tion in Rus­sia. The jus­tice sys­tem is bro­ken and crim­i­nalised. Offi­cials steal from their own country’s cof­fers with impuni­ty, unabashed­ly mur­der the inno­cent peo­ple who stand in their way, and use the very sys­tem that is meant to pro­tect ordi­nary cit­i­zens to pro­tect them­selves in their crimes. Giv­en the involve­ment of the most senior gov­ern­ment offi­cials in the pros­e­cu­tion of Mag­nit­sky, and in the cov­er-up and pro­tec­tion since his death, it is incon­ceiv­able that an inves­ti­ga­tion by Russ­ian author­i­ties alone could be just, fair, unbi­ased and free from the inter­fer­ence of those same senior state offi­cials.” Read more

US Senator Cardin Submits Unprecedented Legislation Dramatically Expanding the Magnitsky Sanctions in Russia

May 20, 2011

Today, Sen­a­tor Ben­jamin Cardin (D‑Md.) sub­mit­ted a new ver­sion of the Sergei Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion which would impose sanc­tions against Russ­ian offi­cials who per­pe­trate human rights abus­es and face no accountability.

The new bill enti­tled: “The Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act of 2011” fol­lows on from the pre­vi­ous “Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Act of 2010” which was sub­mit­ted in the 111^th Con­gress. Like the pre­vi­ous bill, this law will specif­i­cal­ly can­cel visas and deny entry into the US to all those who played a role in the false arrest, tor­ture and death of 37-year old anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, and those involved in the cor­rup­tion and thefts of pub­lic funds that he had exposed. The new ver­sion of the law also applies sanc­tions to Russ­ian offi­cials who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the cov­er-up of those indi­vid­u­als who tor­tured and killed Mr. Magnitsky.

In addi­tion, the new Mag­nit­sky Act takes a dra­mat­ic step for­ward and will apply sanc­tions to all those who are involved in killings, gross abuse and tor­ture of human rights activists, jour­nal­ists, anti cor­rup­tion whistle­blow­ers and oth­er fight­ers for democ­ra­cy and rule of law. Specif­i­cal­ly, the visa ban will affect all indi­vid­u­als in the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion who are:

“respon­si­ble for extra­ju­di­cial killings, tor­ture, or oth­er gross vio­la­tions of human rights com­mit­ted against indi­vid­u­als seek­ing to expose ille­gal activ­i­ty car­ried out by offi­cials of the Gov­ern­ment of the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion; or to obtain, exer­cise, defend, or pro­mote inter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized human rights and free­doms, such as the free­doms of reli­gion, expres­sion, asso­ci­a­tion, and assem­bly and the rights to a fair tri­al and demo­c­ra­t­ic elec­tions.” Read more

Новый законопроект имени Сергея Магнитского вводит санкции в отношении всех нарушителей прав человека в России

May 20, 2011

Представляя законопроект, сенатор Кардин сказал:

«Жизнь и трагическая гибель Сергея Магнитского — это напоминание всем нам, что существуют более важные ценности, чем успех, бытовой комфорт и даже сама жизнь. Истина –  одна из таких ценностей. Пусть его пример послужит упреком тем, кого ослепили алчность или трусость, заставив их забыть cвой долг. Пусть он воодушевит на более великие дела тех, кто честно выполняет свою миссию в повседневных буднях нашей жизни, и придаст сил тем, кто стал жертвой ложных обвинений».

Говоря о значении данного законопроекта для противодействия коррупции и движения в защиту прав человека в России, Уильям Браудер, глава компании Her­mitage Сap­i­tal, юридическую помощь которой оказывал Сергей Магнитский, сказал:

«Мы никогда не сможем вернуть Сергея Магнитского, но мы можем и должны оставаться верными его идеалам, за которые он отдал свою молодую жизнь. Законопроект его имени вводит систему санкций в отношении нечистоплотных чиновников, творящих произвол, ломающих человеческие судьбы и отбирающих жизни. Это — лишь малая  дань памяти Сергея и выражение моральной поддержки многим менее известным жертвам беззакония в России.» Read more

СК при МВД превращается из органа следствия в театральную труппу

May 16, 2011

Сегодня СК при МВД РФ в Москве провел спектакль с вызовом адвокатов главы Her­mitage Сap­i­tal Уильяма Браудера — якобы для предъявления обвинения. Однако, когда в назначенное время адвокаты прибыли в следственный комитет МВД, им было сказано, что никакого нового обвинения нет, а действует старое обвинение, предъявлявшееся еще при жизни юриста Her­mitage Сap­i­tal Сергея Магнитского, и которое, как было установлено, было сфальсифицировано.

«Действия Сильченко и Дудукиной из СК при МВД – это настоящий спектакль, целиком, как и все сфабрикованное против Her­mitage Сapi­tal уголовное дело, построенный на художественном вымысле. На прошлой неделе представители СК при МВД официально заверяли прессу, что сегодня ими будет предъявлено обвинение. Сегодня там говорят, что их не так поняли», — сказал представитель  Her­mitage Capital.

Адвокатам показали постановление о продлении предварительного следствия на неразумный срок, превышающий стандартный (2 месяца), установленный УПК РФ,  в более чем 26 раз. Следствие взяло с адвокатов всеобъемлющую подписку о неразглашении, несмотря на то, что по делу не затрагиваются какие-либо особые вопросы, связанные с государственной или банковской тайной.

“Исходя из cегодняшних действий СК при МВД в отношении адвокатов Her­mitage, стало ясно, что Аничин, Сильченко и иные должностные лица как огня боятся гласности и предания их противоправных действий суду общественного мнения. Они всеми силами пытаются скрыть от общественности творимое беззаконие, пытаясь оказать психологическое давление на адвокатов», — сказал представитель Her­mitage Capital.

Сегодня же английские адвокаты, представляющие интересы Уильяма Браудера, обратились к российским властям с жалобой на имя руководителя президентской администрации Нарышкина, министра иностранных дел РФ Лаврова, министра юстиции Коновалова и генерального прокурора Чайки. В ней указывается на сфабрикованный характер уголовного дела в отношении Her­mitage, расследуемого при отсутствии каких-либо претензий со стороны налоговых органов, и подчеркивается нелегитимный характер повесток с вызовом в Москву, направленных на прошлой неделе на имя г‑на Браудера следователем МВД РФ Сильченко.

В обращении подчеркивается, что последние действия, предпринятые следователем СК при МВД Сильченко и руководителем пресс-службы СК при МВД Дудукиной идут вразрез с международными обязательствами Российской Федерации, взятыми ею в рамках членства в Совете Европы, нарушают положения Конвенции Совета Европы о правовом сотрудничестве в сфере уголовного правосудия и Европейской Конвенции по правам человека.

William Browder, CEO of Hermitage Capital, summoned for questioning in Moscow by Investigator Implicated in Magnitsky Murder

May 12, 2011

Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry inves­ti­ga­tor Oleg Silchenko, who was respon­si­ble for the false arrest, tor­ture and mur­der in cus­tody of Her­mitage Fund’s lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, has issued a sum­mons to ques­tion the CEO of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment, William Brow­der, in Moscow.

The sum­mons came by fax from Silchenko just two days before the date of the intend­ed ques­tion­ing. Silchenko’s notice was print­ed on Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry let­ter­head and was faxed to Hermitage’s Lon­don office on 10 May, invit­ing William Brow­der to appear in Moscow two days lat­er on May 12, at 11 am at the Min­istry of Inte­ri­or Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee: Office 71, ¹⁰⁄₂ B Nikit­skaya, Moscow, Russ­ian Federation.

“The notice from Silchenko is absurd. Silchenko is well aware that William Brow­der was banned from enter­ing the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion on “nation­al secu­ri­ty” grounds. Silchenko is clear­ly retal­i­at­ing against Mr Browder’s glob­al cam­paign to get jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky and efforts to intro­duce sanc­tions against Silchenko and oth­er Russ­ian offi­cials who played a role in Sergei’s, tor­ture and death,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

Silchenko faxed three copies of the same sum­mons, one after the oth­er, at the same time, chang­ing the date on each fax head­er, to make it appear that they were sent at dif­fer­ent dates and times. How­ev­er, the receipt details from the fax­es all show that they were sent on the same day and with­in min­utes of each other.

The notice states Silchenko’s inten­tion to give to Mr Brow­der the text of an “accu­sa­tion” and to ques­tion Mr Brow­der. How­ev­er, none of Mr Browder’s Russ­ian lawyers have been noti­fied of this action in breach of Russ­ian law, which requires the inves­ti­ga­tor to advise lawyers of any such sum­mons. In his sum­mons, Silchenko has also ignored the Russ­ian legal norms stip­u­lat­ed for ques­tion­ing UK nation­als through the Russ­ian / UK mutu­al legal assis­tance treaties.

“The fact that the sum­mons from Moscow to Lon­don was sent by fax and with only two days notice, is sim­ply laugh­able. Silchenko keeps demon­strat­ing his incom­pe­tence and inabil­i­ty to work with­in the law. If  Silchenko has any legal ques­tions, we would be delight­ed to see him in Lon­don where we have some legal ques­tions of our own for him,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

Last week, Silchenko also issued an arrest war­rant for anoth­er Her­mitage Cap­i­tal exec­u­tive, Ivan Cherkasov. It is being appealed by Mr Cherkasov’s lawyers as polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed, retal­ia­to­ry and illegitimate.

Silchenko has become famous across Rus­sia and the world for his role in the tor­ture of Mr Mag­nit­sky which includ­ed: fal­si­fy­ing evi­dence, deny­ing him med­ical care, with­hold­ing food and clean water and for­bid­ding him access to his fam­i­ly. These actions were tak­en in an attempt to force Mr. Mag­nit­sky to retract his tes­ti­monies against cor­rupt Russ­ian offi­cials who he had accused of mis­ap­pro­pri­at­ing three Her­mitage Fund com­pa­nies, and embez­zling $230 mil­lion of pub­lic tax­es. Based on com­plaints filed by Mr Mag­nit­sky, Silchenko also tried to pres­sure Mr. Mag­nit­sky to sign a false con­fes­sion to impli­cate him­self as well as his client, Mr Brow­der. Three days before his death, Mr. Mag­nit­sky filed a com­plaint with the courts stat­ing his deter­mi­na­tion to bring Silchenko, and oth­er offi­cials who fal­si­fied his case, to trial.

Since Sergei Magnitsky’s death in cus­tody a year and a half ago, the Moscow Helsin­ki Group, an inde­pen­dent Russ­ian human rights organ­i­sa­tion, has filed crim­i­nal com­plaints against Silchenko for his role in the false arrest, tor­ture and mur­der of Mr Mag­nit­sky and the cov­er up of gov­ern­ment offi­cials exposed by Mag­nit­sky in corruption.

Last year, Silchenko also fal­si­fied evi­dence against anoth­er of Hermitage’s Russ­ian lawyers, Alexan­der Antipov, in an attempt to arrest him and have him dis­barred. These actions were pub­licly con­demned by the Moscow Bar Association.

Last month, mem­bers of the Russ­ian president’s Human Rights Coun­cil released part of their find­ings on the Mag­nit­sky case which stat­ed that Mr. Mag­nit­sky was impris­oned by Silchenko on false grounds and that the Inte­ri­or Min­istry and the Russ­ian Fed­er­al Secu­ri­ty Ser­vice (FSB), had fab­ri­cat­ed the case against him. This is the same case for which Mr Brow­der is being sought for ques­tion­ing today.

In spite of Oleg Silchenko’s pub­lic record and involve­ment in the death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, last year Russ­ian author­i­ties pro­mot­ed Silchenko and gave him top state hon­ours on the one year anniver­sary of Sergei Magnitsky’s death.

In 2009, the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe con­clud­ed in their report on ‘Alle­ga­tions of Polit­i­cal­ly-Moti­vat­ed Abus­es of the Crim­i­nal Jus­tice Sys­tem in Coun­cil of Europe Mem­bers States’, that:

“the pro­ceed­ings in the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion against Her­mitage exec­u­tives and lawyers were polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed and as such, any request from Rus­sia for mutu­al legal assis­tance must be reject­ed as being con­trary to the estab­lished legal norms”.

Silchenko’s notice comes weeks after the Swiss Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor opened, on appli­ca­tion from Her­mitage Cap­i­tal, an inves­ti­ga­tion into mon­ey laun­der­ing by Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials and their fam­i­lies. These offi­cials were impli­cat­ed in the theft of Her­mitage Fund’s invest­ment com­pa­nies and $230 mil­lion stolen from pub­lic funds – crimes uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky and which inves­ti­ga­tor Silchenko played a key role in concealing.

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