Russia Targets Magnitsky Justice Campaigner Browder Through Interpol for the Third Time

June 19, 2014

The Russ­ian gov­ern­ment has again tar­get­ed William Brow­der, leader of the glob­al Mag­nit­sky jus­tice cam­paign, through Inter­pol, an inter­na­tion­al police organ­i­sa­tion. This is Russia’s third attempt to involve Inter­pol in its polit­i­cal attack on Mr Brow­der, who has angered the Russ­ian author­i­ties with his crit­i­cism of cor­rup­tion and human rights vio­la­tions under the Putin regime.

This morn­ing, the Russ­ian Gen­er­al Prosecutor’s Office announced that it has suc­ceed­ed in its goal of mak­ing Interpol’s data pro­tec­tion com­mis­sion, known as the Com­mis­sion for the Con­trol of Interpol’s Files, to con­sid­er the third Russ­ian request seek­ing to search for William Brow­der via Inter­pol chan­nels. Pre­vi­ous requests were denied by both the Inter­pol Com­mis­sion and by Interpol’s Gen­er­al Sec­re­tari­at on the grounds of their “pre­dom­i­nant­ly polit­i­cal nature” and being con­trary to Interpol’s Con­sti­tu­tion and rules, which pro­hib­it tar­get­ing polit­i­cal oppo­nents through police cooperation.

In a state­ment, the Russ­ian Gen­er­al Prosecutor’s Office said this morning:

“Thanks to the actions of the Gen­er­al Prosecutor’s Office of the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion, the Com­mis­sion for Con­trol of Interpol’s Files will recon­sid­er the mat­ter of the inter­na­tion­al search for William Brow­der.” http://www.genproc.gov.ru/smi/news/genproc/news-202876/The announce­ment fur­ther explained that the Russ­ian Prosecutor’s Office has achieved its goal of tar­get­ing Mr Brow­der at Inter­pol by “hold­ing meet­ings with Interpol’s lead­er­ship and heads of depart­ments”, and tak­ing part in the Inter­pol Commission’s meet­ing in Jan­u­ary 2014 with a “rea­soned report on the valid­i­ty of crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion” of Mr Browder.

Mr Brow­der, who resides in Eng­land, has been tar­get­ed by the Russ­ian author­i­ties with retal­ia­to­ry and spu­ri­ous crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings in Rus­sia for a num­ber of years. The attack on him by the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment esca­lat­ed after the adop­tion in Decem­ber 2012 of the U.S. ‘Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act’, which impos­es tar­get­ed visa and finan­cial sanc­tions on Russ­ian offi­cials and oth­ers involved in Magnitsky’s ill-treat­ment and death in police cus­tody, and the sub­se­quent cov­er up of those crimes.

Since the pas­sage of the Mag­nit­sky law in the Unit­ed States, the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment has respond­ed in a hos­tile man­ner, by con­vict­ing Mr Brow­der in absen­tia and Mr Mag­nit­sky posthu­mous­ly in the first ever posthu­mous tri­al in Russ­ian legal his­to­ry, which was held beyond the statute of limitations.The judge who presided over the posthu­mous tri­al was put on the sanc­tions list by the U.S. Gov­ern­ment, and at the same time pro­mot­ed by Pres­i­dent Putin.  Russ­ian author­i­ties have also opened a new crim­i­nal case in which Mr Brow­der is alleged to have harmed Russia’s “nation­al eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty,” through his share­hold­er activism twelve years ago at Krem­lin-con­trolled Gazprom, Russia’s gas monopoly.

No com­ment from Interpol’s Com­mis­sion on the Russ­ian Prosecutor’s Office announce­ment is avail­able yet.

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