Council of Europe to Conduct International Investigation into the Torture and Murder of Sergei Magnitsky

October 5, 2012

Coun­cil of Europe to Con­duct Inter­na­tion­al Inves­ti­ga­tion into the Tor­ture and Mur­der of Sergei Magnitsky

5 Octo­ber 2012 — Today, the Bureau of the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe (PACE) approved the appoint­ment of its Legal Affairs and Human Rights Com­mit­tee to con­duct an inter­na­tion­al inves­ti­ga­tion into all of the cir­cum­stances of the death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky in Russ­ian police cus­tody three years ago. The vote passed with 9 in favor and 7 opposed.

The vote took place in Stras­bourg at the Bureau meet­ing of the PACE, which con­sists of nation­al del­e­ga­tion rep­re­sen­ta­tives, par­ty group lead­ers and the chairs of each of the PACE com­mit­tees. The Bureau of the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly deter­mines the day-to-day work­ings of PACE. 

“This is a very impor­tant step for­ward in the Mag­nit­sky case because it allows for a trans­par­ent and inde­pen­dent review of the case in accor­dance with uni­ver­sal­ly accept­ed prin­ci­ples at an inter­na­tion­al lev­el. It is crit­i­cal since the cru­cial find­ings of two inde­pen­dent Russ­ian com­mis­sions have been entire­ly ignored by offi­cial inves­ti­ga­tors from the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative. 

Last week, the moth­er of Sergei Mag­nit­sky tes­ti­fied in Moscow court at the tri­al of one prison doc­tor who is charged with neg­li­gence about the fail­ure of the author­i­ties to account for the evi­dence of Magnitsky’s tor­ture and mur­der. She appealed to the court to add addi­tion­al sus­pects who were respon­si­ble for Sergei Magnitsky’s false impris­on­ment and death in cus­tody. In her speech, Mrs. Mag­nit­skaya high­light­ed the role of the senior lead­er­ship of the Inte­ri­or Min­istry and high rank­ing offi­cials from the Russ­ian penal sys­tem, who orga­nized her son’s numer­ous trans­fers between 6 deten­tion cen­ters and at least 21 dif­fer­ent cells dur­ing his 358 days in deten­tion. Mrs. Magnitskaya’s lawyer also spoke in court about the secret intel­li­gence files that con­tain records of intel­li­gence activ­i­ties car­ried out against Sergei Mag­nit­sky by the Russ­ian Secu­ri­ty Ser­vice (known as “FSB”) while he was in detention. 

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion please contact:

Her­mitage Capital
Phone: +44 207 440 1777
Email: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
Web­site: http://lawandorderinrussia.org

Face­book: http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI
Twit­ter: @KatieFisher__
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