Magnitsky’s Mother Asks Russian Press to Avoid Becoming an Accomplice in the Posthumous Trial of Her Son

March 27, 2013

Ahead of anoth­er day in the his­toric posthu­mous tri­al of Sergei Mag­nit­sky in Moscow, Mag­nit­sky’s moth­er has addressed the Russ­ian press ask­ing them to refrain from repeat­ing false accu­sa­tions that the state is mak­ing against her dead son. She called the tri­al today a “blas­phe­my” and “des­e­cra­tion of the mem­o­ry of her son” organ­ised in response to the Mag­nit­sky Law passed in the Unit­ed States. 

“Those who do not under­stand the pur­pose of this tri­al, I want to clar­i­fy that the cur­rent gov­ern­ment needs a court doc­u­ment, a judg­ment that my son was alleged­ly guilty of the crimes he was incrim­i­nat­ed of while he was still alive. This doc­u­ment is nec­es­sary for the author­i­ties to com­pro­mise my son, whose name is on the law passed against cor­rupt Russ­ian offi­cials involved in plun­der­ing the Russ­ian bud­get, and in the reprisal against him for their expo­sure,” said Ms Magnitskaya.

Ms Mag­nit­skaya empha­sized that her son was detained and per­se­cut­ed in ret­ri­bu­tion for expos­ing the large theft of bud­get money.
“Today you are not forced to repeat the false alle­ga­tions com­posed by per­sons respon­si­ble for ensur­ing that they kept my son for a year as a hostage, try­ing to get from him tes­ti­mo­ny they want­ed, and to make him with­draw his tes­ti­mo­ny about the theft of 5.4 bil­lion rubles from the bud­get of our coun­try, from pock­ets from all of us,” said Natalia Magnitskaya.

“Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the media who today are repeat­ing false accu­sa­tions ema­nat­ing from the court, from the police, inves­ti­ga­tors, and pros­e­cu­tors, who tor­tured my son and had motive to wish his death, will become com­plic­it in the ongo­ing blas­phe­my,” said the moth­er of Sergei Magnitsky.
Ms Mag­nit­skaya said her son had repeat­ed­ly stat­ed that the accu­sa­tions against him would not hold up in a prop­er open tri­al and stressed that he vowed to bring those respon­si­ble for the fal­si­fi­ca­tion of his case mate­ri­als to jus­tice just three days before his death in custody. 

“The last com­plaint from my son to the court was about the fal­si­fi­ca­tion of mate­ri­als of his case. Sergei said that he would seek to bring to jus­tice those respon­si­ble for fab­ri­cat­ing case mate­ri­als. This hap­pened just three days before his death, on Novem­ber 13, 2009. Now, one can only assume the role this com­plaint played in his death,” said Ms Magnitskaya.

Ms Mag­nit­skaya said the posthu­mous tri­al is “an exam­ple of hypocrisy and law­less­ness” of the Russ­ian jus­tice system.
Full text of state­ment from Ms. Mag­nit­skaya follows:

“Due to the con­tin­u­a­tion in the Tver­skoi Court of Moscow of the posthu­mous tri­al of my son, Sergei Mag­nit­sky, I appeal to you not to allow your­self to get involved in the shame­ful cam­paign of posthu­mous des­e­cra­tion of his name, not to repeat the false accu­sa­tions against him, and to demon­strate this way respect to his mem­o­ry, and to the feel­ings of fam­i­ly and relatives.

Please bear in mind that this pro­ceed­ing is an exam­ple of hypocrisy and law­less­ness of mod­ern [Russ­ian] jus­tice, and, of course, will go down in his­to­ry as one of its most infa­mous pages. Those par­tic­i­pat­ing in this pro­ceed­ing and those who are behind it, have scorned the uni­ver­sal notions of moral­i­ty, flout­ed the opin­ion of the fam­i­ly of the deceased, and the opin­ion of inde­pen­dent legal and human rights organizations.

Those who do not under­stand the pur­pose of this tri­al, I want to clar­i­fy that the cur­rent gov­ern­ment needs a court doc­u­ment, a judg­ment that my son was alleged­ly guilty of the crimes he was incrim­i­nat­ed of while he was still alive. This doc­u­ment is nec­es­sary for the author­i­ties to com­pro­mise my son, whose name is on the law passed against cor­rupt Russ­ian offi­cials involved in plun­der­ing the Russ­ian bud­get, and in the reprisal against him for their exposure
Using this unlaw­ful process, those who orga­nized reprisal against my son, who deprived him of lib­er­ty, health and life, now want to take away his good name and dis­cred­it him posthu­mous­ly, using the fact that Serge is dead and can­not answer their charges.
Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the media who today are repeat­ing false accu­sa­tions ema­nat­ing from the court, from the police, inves­ti­ga­tors, and pros­e­cu­tors, who tor­tured my son and had motive to wish his death, will become com­plic­it in the ongo­ing blasphemy.

The court pro­ceed­ing in the Tver­skoi Dis­trict Court of Moscow is a des­e­cra­tion of the mem­o­ry of my son, who was giv­en an inter­na­tion­al award for the fight against cor­rup­tion. Even while in prison, sub­ject­ed to unbear­able phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal suf­fer­ing and humil­i­a­tion, he did not make a deal with his con­science and stayed true to him­self and his beliefs about hon­or, law and jus­tice. In mem­o­ry of his civ­il feat there is a per­ma­nent exhi­bi­tion at the Muse­um of the Berlin Wall in Germany.
Sergey repeat­ed­ly stat­ed that the charges against him relied on false accu­sa­tions of tax crimes based on con­clu­sions of inter­est­ed experts who would not have been able to jus­ti­fy them in an open tri­al. All his requests for cross-exam­i­na­tion of per­sons who gave false evi­dence against him were refused by investigators.
The last com­plaint from my son to the court was about the fal­si­fi­ca­tion of mate­ri­als of his case. Sergei said that he would seek to bring to jus­tice those respon­si­ble for fab­ri­cat­ing case mate­ri­als. This hap­pened just three days before his death, on Novem­ber 13, 2009. Now, one can only assume the role this com­plaint played in his death.
Today you are not forced to repeat the false alle­ga­tions com­posed by per­sons respon­si­ble for ensur­ing that they kept my son for a year as a hostage, try­ing to get from him tes­ti­mo­ny they want­ed, and to make him with­draw his tes­ti­mo­ny about the theft of 5.4 bil­lion rubles from the bud­get of our coun­try, from pock­ets from all of us.
If you want to report the news of this pro­ceed­ing, do not give place to the for­mal­ism and lies in your reports, pub­lish state­ments and com­plaints of my son, thank­ful­ly, they are avail­able to the pub­lic on the web­site of his friends and col­leagues “Stop the Untouch­ables” .”

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