Posthumous Prosecution of Sergei Magnitsky is Moving Forward In Spite of Massive Falsifications; Lawyers are Forbidden to See the Case File

November 2, 2012

On the eve of the third anniver­sary of the death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky in Russ­ian police cus­tody, the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry has announced that it has com­plet­ed its inves­ti­ga­tion and pre­pared the case file for an immi­nent tri­al. The pro­ceed­ings in rela­tion to Mag­nit­sky, who has been dead for three years, will be the first case of a posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion in Russ­ian legal history.

Lawyers for Her­mitage have uncov­ered evi­dence of mas­sive fal­si­fi­ca­tions of doc­u­ments in the case file. They have filed 40 com­plaints in the last six months detail­ing the fal­si­fi­ca­tion and oth­er legal vio­la­tions, includ­ing con­ceal­ment of evi­dence and con­flict of inter­est, but all com­plaints have been reject­ed by the Ostank­in­sky Dis­trict Court and the Fed­er­al Inte­ri­or Min­istry on unrea­soned grounds. Fol­low­ing these com­plaints, the Inte­ri­or Min­istry inves­ti­ga­tor Shupolovsky, who has been put in charge of the case, has now denied Her­mitage’s lawyer any access to fur­ther mate­ri­als in the case file. 

Yes­ter­day, Her­mitage lawyers filed five com­plaints detail­ing the obstruc­tion of jus­tice and denial of lawyers’ access to the case file with Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Chai­ka, Head of Inte­ri­or Ministry’s Inves­tiga­tive Depart­ment Alek­seev and Head of Inte­ri­or Ministry’s Depart­ment for the Cen­tral Fed­er­al Dis­trict Agafie­va. Their response is not known yet.

“The case is an unlaw­ful crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ing which is car­ried out in spite of the evi­dence of inno­cence and despite the absence of a crime alleged­ly com­mit­ted more than ten years ago…Under the guise of a crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ing, the author­i­ties are car­ry­ing out a polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed pun­ish­ment of Her­mitage, that lead to the death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky,” said Her­mitage lawyers in their complaint.
“Coun­sel was giv­en mate­ri­als of the case file from which they have estab­lished evi­dence of the fal­si­fi­ca­tion and abuse of office,… the sig­nif­i­cant amount of mate­ri­als have been con­cealed from the coun­sel… Fol­low­ing this, Inte­ri­or Min­istry Inves­ti­ga­tor Shupolovsky act­ing in abuse of office and con­trary to the inter­ests of the pub­lic ser­vice, wil­ful­ly pur­su­ing unlaw­ful pur­pos­es, has denied the coun­sel the access to the case file,” said the complaint.
The fal­si­fi­ca­tion of the case files was first uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky him­self five days before his death, on 11 Novem­ber 2009 when he wrote a com­plaint detail­ing the vio­la­tions and stat­ing his intent to bring those respon­si­ble to jus­tice. On 16 Novem­ber 2009, he was found dead on the floor of an iso­la­tion cell with signs of vio­lence on his body.

Mag­nit­sky’s fam­i­ly has refused to par­tic­i­pate in the posthu­mous pro­ceed­ing call­ing it amoral and uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. They filed three appeals with the Russ­ian courts and sev­er­al appeals with the Russ­ian Prosecutor’s Office and the Inte­ri­or Min­istry. All have been denied.
Sergei Mag­nit­sky (8 April 1972 – 16 Novem­ber 2009), an out­side lawyer for the Her­mitage Fund, was killed in Russ­ian police cus­tody at the age of 37 after he exposed the $230 mil­lion theft impli­cat­ing gov­ern­ment offi­cials. He was hon­ored posthu­mous­ly with 2010 Integri­ty Award by Trans­paren­cy Inter­na­tion­al, for his fight against offi­cial corruption.

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