French Lawmakers Call on Russia to Cease “Grim Comedy” of Magnitsky Posthumous Trial Ahead of the 4 March Hearing

March 1, 2013

Ahead of the 4 March hear­ing in Moscow in the first ever posthu­mous tri­al in the his­to­ry of Rus­sia of dead whis­tle-blow­ing lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, ten French law­mak­ers pub­lished an open let­ter call­ing on the Russ­ian author­i­ties to cease this “grim com­e­dy” echo­ing of “repres­sion” and take steps to bring Mag­nit­sky killers to jus­tice and pro­tect his fam­i­ly from intimidation. 

“Mag­nit­sky killers should not be above the law, and the grim com­e­dy of his posthu­mous tri­al must stop. Sim­i­lar­ly, the ongo­ing harass­ment and suf­fer­ing caused to his moth­er and wid­ow must stop,” said French lawmakers.

The open let­ter pub­lished yes­ter­day in the week­ly French mag­a­zine Mar­i­anne (http://www.marianne.net/Monsieur-le-President-les-droits-de-l-Homme-en-Russie-c-est-maintenant-_a226954.html) is signed by Bruno Le Roux, Pres­i­dent of the rul­ing Social­ist group in the Nation­al Assem­bly, Sen­a­tor Jean-Vin­cent Place, chair­man of the Green fac­tion in the Sen­ate, Sen­a­tor Andre Gat­tolin, Deputy Axelle Lemaire and oth­er law­mak­ers from both the French Sen­ate and Nation­al Assembly.

“Those whom Mag­nit­sky sought to prove com­plic­it with the impuni­ty denounce him today and accus­ing him of fraud. His tri­al reopened in a closed court in Moscow a few days ago sounds like an echo of repres­sive mobi­liza­tion,” said French parliamentarians. 

French law­mak­ers urge Rus­sia to return to the val­ues of Enlight­en­ment and the Euro­pean Human Rights Con­ven­tion which bars posthu­mous pro­ceed­ings as being con­trary to the prin­ci­ple of fair tri­al where peo­ple can­not obvi­ous­ly defend themselves.

“In ancient times the dead were some­times judged — in ancient Egypt, in medieval Italy or in France of the Ancien Régime. But in the legal tra­di­tion of the Enlight­en­ment, “it does not suit the corpses or the mem­o­ry of the dead,” and the post-mortem con­dem­na­tion of an accused is pre­clud­ed by the Euro­pean Court of Human Rights under Arti­cle 6 of the Euro­pean Con­ven­tion on Human Rights rat­i­fied by the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion,” said French deputies and sen­a­tors in their open letter.

In mak­ing their point about the Mag­nit­sky case being sym­bol­ic of human rights vio­la­tions, French law­mak­ers drew par­al­lels between the Magnitsky’s ordeal and his prison diaries with the poignant descrip­tion by Russ­ian writer Alexan­der Solzhen­it­syn of the Sovi­et Gulag.

“Fifty years ago Alexan­der Solzhen­it­syn pub­lished One Day in the Life of Ivan Deniso­vich, a lit­er­ary nar­ra­tive of the dai­ly life of a “zek”, a pris­on­er of the Gulag, describ­ing fatal­ism with depri­va­tion and tor­ture. The same atten­tion to detail in his pre­sen­ta­tion but with a revolt of an alive was applied by the lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky to explain in the hun­dreds of let­ters from prison in Moscow his ordeal and the rea­sons for his inno­cence. But after 358 days of deten­tion, threats, iso­la­tion, cold and lack of care the deter­mi­na­tion of this young tax lawyer came to an end, when he died Novem­ber 16, 2009 at the hands of his captors.”

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