Magnitsky Family Lawyer Files Complaint about Magnitsky Death Probe Documents Being Passed to the Officers Being Investigated

November 19, 2012

Niko­lai Gorokhov, the lawyer for Sergei Magnitsky’s moth­er, filed a com­plaint with the Russ­ian Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor and Russ­ian State Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee to stop the offi­cials con­duct­ing the probe into her son’s death from hand­ing out con­fi­den­tial inves­ti­ga­tion doc­u­ments to the offi­cers who are cur­rent­ly being inves­ti­gat­ed. Accord­ing to case files obtained by the fam­i­ly’s lawyer, A. Tschukin, head of the Main Inves­tiga­tive Depart­ment of the Russ­ian Inevstiga­tive Com­mit­tee, made the deci­sion to hand over infor­ma­tion, includ­ing wit­ness state­ments, to the Inves­tiga­tive Depart­ment of the Inte­ri­or Min­istry, whose employ­ees were sub­jects in the Mag­nit­sky death probe. 

The com­plaint from Niko­lai Gorokhov chal­lenges the deci­sion to pro­vide unre­strict­ed access to case files to the Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials who are inter­est­ed in con­ceal­ing their lia­bil­i­ty in Magnitsky’s death. He points out that this rep­re­sents a gross con­flict of inter­est and cre­ates a threat to the safe­ty of vic­tims and witnesses.

“Acts by the head of the Inves­tiga­tive Depart­ment of the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee A.V. Tschukin, have cre­at­ed con­di­tions threat­en­ing the lives and safe­ty of the vic­tims and oth­ers per­sons who pro­vid­ed wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny to the inves­ti­ga­tion about the role of Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers in the crime against Sergei Mag­nit­sky, who are inter­est­ed in con­ceal­ing this data and their lia­bil­i­ty for the crime,” said Gorokhov in his complaint.

“The head of the inves­tiga­tive body A.V. Tschukin gave per­mis­sion to the offi­cials of the Inte­ri­or Min­istry’ Inves­tiga­tive Depart­ment who were the very same peo­ple named by the vic­tim as com­plic­it in the crime against her son, to access crim­i­nal case files…, in spite of the appar­ent con­flict of interest…Acts by A.V. Tschukin who pro­vid­ed these files to the per­sons with con­flict of inter­est and in posi­tions of pow­er, are immoral and unlaw­ful, as they are in con­tra­ven­tion with pro­vi­sions of Arti­cle 52 of the Russ­ian Con­sti­tu­tion which enshrine the pro­tec­tion of vic­tims’ rights from crimes and abuse of pow­er,” says the complaint. 

“This sit­u­a­tion is sim­ply intol­er­a­ble. Not only is it a gross con­flict of inter­est, but the actions of gov­ern­ment offi­cials have cre­at­ed a real dan­ger for the vic­tims and wit­ness­es. The very same police offi­cers whom Sergei Mag­nit­sky request­ed to be inves­ti­gat­ed when he was still alive, have used their author­i­ty to obtain wit­ness state­ments and oth­er inves­tiga­tive data.” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative. 

The Russ­ian author­i­ties jus­ti­fied the pass­ing of these con­fi­den­tial inves­tiga­tive files to the Inte­ri­or Min­istry on the pre­text that the Inte­ri­or Min­istry need­ed them for the posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion of Sergei Mag­nit­sky which they launched last year.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky was arrest­ed and tor­tured to death in Russ­ian police cus­tody after he had tes­ti­fied about the involve­ment of police offi­cials in a $230 mil­lion tax rebate fraud. Since his death, those offi­cials have been exon­er­at­ed, pro­mot­ed and award­ed state hon­ours, and then ini­ti­at­ed the posthu­mous case against Sergei Mag­nit­sky, the first ever in Russ­ian legal history. 

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