Sergei Magnitsky’s Mother is Summoned for Questioning Against Her Will by Russian Interior Ministry for the Second Time on December 28^th

December 28, 2011

The Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry has appoint­ed a new inves­ti­ga­tor to inter­ro­gate Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s rel­a­tives in the unprece­dent­ed case opened against a man who has been dead for two years. Sev­er­al appeals by Mag­nit­sky’s rel­a­tives to stop the posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion have been denied by the Russ­ian author­i­ties. Under the case, the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry has been pres­sur­ing Mag­nit­sky’s rel­a­tives to give up their right to seek jus­tice for Mag­nit­sky’s death in cus­tody in exchange for ceas­ing their posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion against him.

Last week Mag­nit­sky’s moth­er received a telegram from inves­ti­ga­tor Boris Kibis of the Inte­ri­or Min­istry’s Depart­ment for the Cen­tral Fed­er­al Dis­trict, sum­mon­ing her for ques­tion­ing today, Decem­ber 28 to 15 – 00. As an alter­na­tive to the con­tin­u­ing pros­e­cu­tion of her son, inves­ti­ga­tor Kibis sug­gest­ed that Mag­nit­sky’s moth­er waive her right to reha­bil­i­tate her son.

“I refuse to know­ing­ly par­tic­i­pate in ille­gal inves­tiga­tive actions in a crim­i­nal case, renewed in respect of my son, because I do not trust the inves­ti­ga­tor who does not obey the law and does not respect the rights of cit­i­zens. I ask again for pro­tec­tion for me and all oth­er rel­a­tives of Sergei from this per­se­cu­tion”, said Natalia Mag­nit­skaya in a state­ment addressed to the chief of the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry’s Depart­ment for Cen­tral Fed­er­al Dis­trict Mr Solovyov.

The sum­mons for ques­tion­ing received by Natalia Mag­nit­skaya was signed by Inves­ti­ga­tor Boris Kibis, who was appoint­ed to the case by Tatiana Gerasi­mo­va, First Deputy Chief of the Inte­ri­or Min­istry’s Inves­tiga­tive Depart­ment. Ms Gerasi­mo­va was named in a recent let­ter by U.S. Sen­a­tors to be exclud­ed from the U.S. for her role in the Mag­nit­sky case.

Ear­li­er, the same inves­ti­ga­tor, Kibis, reject­ed the find­ings of the Pres­i­dent Medvede­v’s Human Rights Coun­cil, which found that Mag­nit­sky’s arrest was ille­gal and his rights were vio­lat­ed by inves­ti­ga­tors with a clear con­flict of inter­est. In a for­mal state­ment, Inves­ti­ga­tor Kibis described the Pres­i­den­t’s Human Rights Coun­cil report as “irrel­e­vant” and “inad­miss­able”. Inves­ti­ga­tor Kibis also found no vio­la­tions in the actions of his pre­de­ces­sor inves­ti­ga­tor Oleg Silchenko, who played a key role in Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s tor­ture and denial of med­ical care in detention. 

Along with the sum­mons to appear before the Inte­ri­or Min­istry, inves­ti­ga­tor Boris Kibis noti­fied Mag­nit­sky’s moth­er that she was assigned a sta­tus of a “legal rep­re­sen­ta­tive of a deceased defen­dant,” which is a legal term which has no basis under Russ­ian law.

“Your sum­mons is ille­gal. Equal­ly ille­gal is the spe­cial­ly invent­ed sta­tus of “legal rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the deceased defen­dant”. I have nev­er request­ed to be rec­og­nized as such. Giv­ing me this sta­tus against my will is ille­gal and unac­cept­able,” said Ms. Magnitskaya.

The lawyer for Ms. Mag­nit­skaya Nicholai Gorokhov appealed the actions of inves­ti­ga­tor Kibis to the Russ­ian Pros­e­cu­tor Gen­er­al. In his com­plaint filed on Decem­ber 20, 2011, Mr Gorokhov stated:

“The telegram from inves­ti­ga­tor Boris Kibis sug­gests that inves­ti­ga­tors in the “Mag­nit­sky case” have reached a new low. Now, if there is no exist­ing law that the inves­ti­ga­tors can use to fur­ther their goals, they just devise a new law for a giv­en situation…Actions by Inves­ti­ga­tor Kibis show that he con­tin­ues to ille­gal­ly pros­e­cute both Mag­nit­sky and per­se­cute Mag­nit­sky’s close rel­a­tives, act­ing con­trary to the law or on the basis of non-exis­tent law.”

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