Russian Interior Ministry Threatens Magnitsky Family Lawyer

January 17, 2012

17 Jan­u­ary 2012 – Today, Natalya Mag­nit­skaya, the moth­er of anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky received her fifth sum­mons from the Inte­ri­or Min­istry to appear as a wit­ness in the crim­i­nal case opened up against her dead son. The sum­mons is part of the ongo­ing pres­sure against the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly to cease their calls for jus­tice and pros­e­cu­tions of Russ­ian offi­cials involved in Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s tor­ture and murder. 

“I refuse to par­tic­i­pate in the ille­gal inves­tiga­tive actions in a crim­i­nal case under which my son was repressed using the fab­ri­cat­ed evi­dence,” said Sergei Magnitsky’s moth­er in a state­ment sent yes­ter­day to the Russ­ian Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Yuri Chaika.

Niko­lai Gorokhov, the lawyer for the fam­i­ly, has appealed to the Russ­ian Pres­i­den­t’s Human Rights Coun­cil for pro­tec­tion from this Inte­ri­or Min­istry per­se­cu­tion. The Pres­i­den­t’s Human Rights Coun­cil con­clud­ed last July that the case against Mag­nit­sky had been fab­ri­cat­ed and his arrest was in breach of the Euro­pean Human Rights Convention.

The deci­sion by the Inte­ri­or Min­istry to resume the crim­i­nal case against Sergei Mag­nit­sky was made after his death in late July last year, short­ly after the Pres­i­den­t’s Human Rights Coun­cil pub­lished its find­ings of gross breach­es of Magnitsky’s human rights. The deci­sion to open the posthu­mous case was sanc­tioned by Deputy Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Grin and Deputy Chief of the Inte­ri­or Ministry’s Inves­tiga­tive Depart­ment Boro­dulin. Since then, the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry has claimed that it found no wrong-doing in actions of its inves­ti­ga­tors in spite of the detailed find­ings by the Human Rights Coun­cil of clear crim­i­nal actions by a num­ber of Inte­ri­or Min­istry inves­ti­ga­tors. Since then, the Inte­ri­or Min­istry has been pres­sur­ing Magnitsky’s rel­a­tives to give up their right for his rehabilitation.

In a recent devel­op­ment, the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry announced that it has assigned Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s moth­er the sta­tus of “rep­re­sen­ta­tive of a deceased defen­dant,” despite the fact that this sta­tus does not exist under Russ­ian law. 

“I do not think it is pos­si­ble for me to par­tic­i­pate in the inves­ti­ga­tion of this case under the sta­tus that is not stip­u­lat­ed by the law and assigned to me against my will,” said Mrs Mag­nit­skaya in a for­mal complaint.

How­ev­er, com­plaints filed by the rel­a­tives have been reject­ed by the Chief of Inte­ri­or Ministry’s Inves­tiga­tive Depart­ment for the Cen­tral Fed­er­al Dis­trict Mr Solovy­ov on Decem­ber 22, 2011.

The lat­est Inte­ri­or Min­istry sum­mons received by Mrs Mag­nit­skaya and oth­er rel­a­tives is signed by Inves­ti­ga­tor Boris Kibis, who is the same inves­ti­ga­tor who reject­ed the con­clu­sions of the Russ­ian Human Rights Coun­cil on the ille­gal­i­ty of Magnitsky’s arrest and pros­e­cu­tion as irrelevant. 

In this lat­est sum­mons, the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry threat­ens Natalya Magnitskaya’s lawyer that if he con­tin­ues to resist the Inte­ri­or Ministry’s actions on behalf of the fam­i­ly, the Inte­ri­or Min­istry will appoint their own lawyers to “rep­re­sent” the family. 

“If the inten­tion of state inves­ti­ga­tors is to assign state lawyers to “rep­re­sent” Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly against the family’s will is imple­ment­ed, it would rep­re­sent a gross vio­la­tion of the fam­i­ly’s con­sti­tu­tion­al right to seek qual­i­fied legal assis­tance,” said Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly lawyer Niko­lai Gorokhov. His com­plaint on behalf of the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly was filed yes­ter­day with Mr Chai­ka, Russ­ian Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor, and Mr Solovy­ov, Chief of the Inte­ri­or Ministry’s Depart­ment for the Cen­tral Fed­er­al District.

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