U.S. Senators Call on Secretary of State Clinton to Urgently Deny Entry to Two Russian Interior Ministry Generals in Magnitsky Case

November 10, 2011

Yes­ter­day, U.S. Sen­a­tors Roger Wick­er and Ben­jamin Cardin request­ed the US Sec­re­tary of State, Hillary Clin­ton, to urgent­ly review the eli­gi­bil­i­ty for entry into the Unit­ed States of two Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry gen­er­als as a result of their involve­ment in the scan­dal sur­round­ing the vio­lent death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky in Russ­ian state custody. 

Gen­er­als Tatiana Gerasi­mo­va and Niko­lai Shelepanov are sched­uled to arrive to Wash­ing­ton next week, which coin­cides with the sec­ond anniver­sary of Sergei Magnitsky’s death. The two gen­er­als, who hold the most senior posi­tions in the Inte­ri­or Ministry’s Inves­tiga­tive Depart­ment, have been over­see­ing the cov­er-up of Magnitsky’s wrong­ful arrest and tor­ture, and of his tes­ti­monies impli­cat­ing cor­rupt gov­ern­ment offi­cials, since his death two years ago.

“We under­stand that these offi­cials, Gen­er­als Tatiana Gerasi­mo­va and Niko­lai Shelepanov, are involved in the cyn­i­cal and sweep­ing cov­er-up of the tor­ture and mur­der of Russ­ian whistle­blow­er Sergei Mag­nit­sky as well as the cor­rup­tion he exposed…We urge you to imme­di­ate­ly review any pos­si­ble visa appli­ca­tions sub­mit­ted by Gen­er­als Gerasi­mo­va and Shelepanov to ensure that their vis­it is in full com­pli­ance with all U.S. immi­gra­tion laws, prac­tices and pro­ce­dures,” said Sen­a­tors Wick­er and Cardin.

The offi­cial rea­son for the Russ­ian gen­er­als’ vis­it to Wash­ing­ton is to dis­cuss intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty rights. How­ev­er, in light of the role of Gen­er­als Gerasi­mo­va and Shelepanov in the cov­er-up of Magnitsky’s tor­ture and mur­der in cus­tody, their eli­gi­bil­i­ty to enter the US will be put into ques­tion under recent­ly enact­ed US laws, which ban entry to gross human rights abusers from abroad. 

On 5 July 2011, the Russ­ian President’s Human Rights Coun­cil con­clud­ed that Mag­nit­sky had been arrest­ed and detained ille­gal­ly, by Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers who had a clear con­flict of inter­est, after Mag­nit­sky had accused them of mas­sive $230 mil­lion tax rebate fraud.

On 6 July 2011, Gen­er­al Gerasi­mo­va, in her capac­i­ty as the 1^st Deputy Head of the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Ministry’s Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee, pub­licly dis­missed the find­ings of the Pres­i­den­t’s Human Rights Coun­cil. She claimed that all actions and deci­sions of Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials under her com­mand in the Mag­nit­sky case were law­ful on the ground that they were sanc­tioned by Russ­ian pros­e­cu­tors and judges. 

Gen­er­al Shelepanov act­ing as Deputy Head of the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Ministry’s Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee, signed a decree pro­long­ing the offi­cial inves­ti­ga­tions under the Mag­nit­sky Case, in spite of the find­ings of the Russ­ian President’s Human Rights Council’s experts that the case has been fab­ri­cat­ed by the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry and the Fed­er­al Secu­ri­ty Ser­vice (FSB). Gen­er­al Shelepanov signed this decree on 4 August 2011, one month after the offi­cial pub­li­ca­tion of the report by the Pres­i­den­t’s Human Rights Coun­cil (on 5 July 2011).

On 9 August 2011, the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Ministry’s Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee reopened its pros­e­cu­tion of Mr. Mag­nit­sky, despite the fact that he had been dead for near­ly two years. The same Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers who were involved in false­ly arrest­ing and tor­tur­ing Mr. Mag­nit­sky in cus­tody, were appoint­ed to this posthu­mous inves­ti­ga­tion of the vic­tim of their tor­ture. This was con­firmed by a let­ter to the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly signed by Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cer Lap­shov on 7 Octo­ber 2011. These actions were car­ried out under the imme­di­ate direc­tion of Gen­er­als Gerasi­mo­va and Shelepanov, as super­vis­ing officers. 

Under this posthu­mous inves­ti­ga­tion, the offi­cers under com­mand of Gen­er­als Gerasi­mo­va and Shelepanov are now intim­i­dat­ing the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly by sum­mon­ing them for ques­tion­ing as “wit­ness­es” (on mat­ters they had no involve­ment with or knowl­edge of), sub­ject­ing them to emo­tion­al dis­tress, as doc­u­ment­ed in the 5 Sep­tem­ber 2011 com­plaint by Sergei Magnitsky’s moth­er with the Inte­ri­or Ministry. 

On 6 Sep­tem­ber 2011, Lud­mi­la Alex­ee­va, Chair of the Moscow Helsin­ki Group, Russia’s old­est human rights organ­i­sa­tion, con­demned these acts by the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry as unlaw­ful pres­sure and intim­i­da­tion of the victim’s fam­i­ly, and vio­lat­ing the fun­da­men­tal norms of rule of law and human rights.

“Gen­er­al Gerasi­mo­va and Gen­er­al Shelepanov have been pro­vid­ing con­tin­u­ing assis­tance to those who tor­tured and killed Mr. Mag­nit­sky in the face of world-wide con­dem­na­tion of his treat­ment, includ­ing by the Coun­cil of Europe, the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment and Russ­ian and inter­na­tion­al human rights orga­ni­za­tions,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a 37-year old anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer and out­side coun­sel for the Her­mitage Fund, was tor­tured to death in Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry cus­tody after he tes­ti­fied about the involve­ment of Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials in the $230 mil­lion corruption. 

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