European Parliamentarians Challenge EU’s New Foreign Policy Chief on Russia and Demand EU to Implement Magnitsky Sanctions in Europe

November 12, 2014

Euro­pean Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans Chal­lenge EU’s New For­eign Pol­i­cy Chief on Rus­sia and Demand EU to Imple­ment Mag­nit­sky Sanc­tions in Europe

12 Novem­ber 2014 – Over twen­ty deputies in the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment have writ­ten to Fed­er­i­ca Mogheri­ni, EU’s new for­eign pol­i­cy chief, ask­ing her to imple­ment the Euro­pean Parliament’s rec­om­men­da­tion to sanc­tion 32 per­sons involved in the arrest, tor­ture and mur­der of whis­tle-blow­ing Russ­ian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

“We are writ­ing to you in rela­tion to the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment Rec­om­men­da­tion to the Coun­cil of 2 April 2014 on estab­lish­ing com­mon visa restric­tions for Russ­ian offi­cials involved in the Sergei Mag­nit­sky case. …As the new head of the Euro­pean Exter­nal Action Ser­vice, what near­est actions do you plan to under­take to fol­low through on this rec­om­men­da­tion?” — said Euro­pean Par­lia­ment deputies in their let­ter to Ms Mogheri­ni — “We ask you now in your new posi­tion to answer these ques­tions so the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment can then take a view of what to do next to make sure there is no fur­ther impuni­ty in the Mag­nit­sky case.”

Since Sergei Magnitsky’s mur­der in Russ­ian police deten­tion five years ago, the only sig­nif­i­cant actions tak­en in Rus­sia have been the posthu­mous tri­al of Sergei Mag­nit­sky him­self and the clo­sure of the inves­ti­ga­tion into his death, which found “no signs of crime,” and absolved all offi­cials from respon­si­bil­i­ty. The inves­ti­ga­tion was closed fol­low­ing Pres­i­dent Putin’s pub­lic inter­ven­tion at a Decem­ber 2012 press con­fer­ence, where he claimed that Mag­nit­sky was not tor­tured, but “died from a heart attack.” 

Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s case and the impuni­ty of the Russ­ian offi­cials involved have become a sym­bol of the endem­ic cor­rup­tion and fail­ing jus­tice sys­tem in Rus­sia, and high­light­ed the abuse that Russ­ian cit­i­zens face when they chal­lenge the author­i­ties. The case lead to a dra­mat­ic move­ment in Russ­ian civ­il soci­ety, call­ing on the West to cre­ate con­se­quences for those involved and specif­i­cal­ly to impose sanc­tions in the form of visa bans and freezes on assets in West­ern banks. 

In response to the Russ­ian impuni­ty, on 2 April 2014 the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment adopt­ed a res­o­lu­tion with­out any objec­tions requir­ing the Euro­pean Exter­nal Action Ser­vice, EU’s for­eign affairs body, to pro­pose the sanc­tions to the EU Coun­cil of Ministers. 

Since the res­o­lu­tion was passed, no action was tak­en by Baroness Cather­ine Ash­ton, the pre­vi­ous head of the EU’s Exter­nal Action Service. 

In addi­tion to the Euro­pean Par­lia­men­t’s actions in the Mag­nit­sky case, the U.S. passed the “Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act” in Decem­ber 2012, impos­ing sanc­tions on the com­plic­it Russ­ian offi­cials. Addi­tion­al­ly, the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the OSCE and the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe (PACE), inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions com­pris­ing up to 57 coun­tries, passed res­o­lu­tions urg­ing their mem­bers and their nation­al par­lia­ments to adopt a course sim­i­lar to the US by imple­ment­ing Mag­nit­sky sanctions. 

Sergei Mag­nit­sky was a 37-year old lawyer and out­side coun­sel for the Her­mitage Fund, who was tor­tured to death in Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry cus­tody after he tes­ti­fied about the involve­ment of Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials in the theft of his client’s com­pa­nies and the $230 mil­lion theft. The Russ­ian offi­cials respon­si­ble for his arrest, tor­ture and killing were absolved from any respon­si­bil­i­ty, pro­mot­ed and dec­o­rat­ed with state honours.

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Campaign
+44 2074401777
info@lawandorderinrussia.org
lawandorderinrussia.org

Pussy Riot to Lead Tribute to Sergei Magnitsky at the British Parliament on the Fifth Anniversary of His Murder in Russian Police Custody

November 12, 2014

Pussy Riot to Lead Trib­ute to Sergei Mag­nit­sky at the British Par­lia­ment on the Fifth Anniver­sary of His Mur­der in Russ­ian Police Custody

11 Novem­ber 2014 – This month marks the fifth anniver­sary of the killing in Russ­ian police cus­tody of 37-year old anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, who exposed a $230 mil­lion fraud per­pe­trat­ed by Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials and organ­ised criminals. 

While his death ignit­ed world­wide con­dem­na­tion and lead to numer­ous polit­i­cal and legal calls for jus­tice around the globe, five years on there is still no jus­tice in Rus­sia for Sergei Magnitsky.

To mark the mem­o­ry of Sergei Mag­nit­sky and the fight against cor­rup­tion which he gave his life for, politi­cians, artists, jour­nal­ists and cam­paign­ers will gath­er in Lon­don on Tues­day 18 Novem­ber 2014 to par­tic­i­pate in a major pan­el by Hen­ry Jack­son Soci­ety to be held at the British parliament.

The ses­sion chaired by Chris Bryant, MP, is enti­tled ‘Prospects for Rus­sia after Putin: Five Years from the Death of Sergei Magnitsky.’ 

Among the pan­elists are mem­bers of the Russ­ian punk protest group Pussy Riot, Nadezh­da Tolokon­niko­va and Maria Alekhi­na, who were pre­vi­ous­ly jailed in Rus­sia for stag­ing an anti-Putin protest in a Moscow church. Also par­tic­i­pat­ing will be Hon Irwin Cotler MP, for­mer Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor of Cana­da, who rep­re­sent­ed pris­on­ers of con­science Nathan Sha­ran­sky and Nel­son Man­dela; for­mer Russ­ian Prime Min­is­ter Mikhail Kasyanov; envi­ron­men­tal activist and oppo­si­tion leader Evge­nia Chiriko­va; and Fran­co-Rus­so jour­nal­ist Ele­na Servet­taz, author of the book, “Why Europe Needs a Mag­nit­sky Law”.

“This event will com­mem­o­rate Sergei Magnitsky’s lega­cy by bring­ing togeth­er some of the top human rights cam­paign­ers to dis­cuss Rus­sia after Putin, and if there is a chance for the kind of Rus­sia that Sergei Mag­nit­sky believed in,” said a Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Cam­paign representative.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky was a 37-year old lawyer and out­side coun­sel for the Her­mitage Fund, who was tor­tured to death in Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry cus­tody after he tes­ti­fied about the involve­ment of Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials in the theft of his client’s com­pa­nies and the $230 mil­lion theft. The Russ­ian offi­cials respon­si­ble for his arrest, tor­ture and killing were absolved from any respon­si­bil­i­ty, pro­mot­ed and dec­o­rat­ed with state honours.

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Campaign
+44 2074401777
info@lawandorderinrussia.org
lawandorderinrussia.org

To reg­is­ter your atten­dance at the Mag­nit­sky event, please go to Hen­ry Jack­son Soci­ety website:
http://henryjacksonsociety.org/2014/11/18/prospects-for-russia-after-putin-five-years-from-the-death-of-sergei-magnitsky/

Ambassadors from Council of Europe States Reject Parliamentarians’ Call to Improve Judicial Cooperation in Case Exposed by Murdered Lawyer Sergei Magnitsky

November 12, 2014

Ambas­sadors from Coun­cil of Europe States Reject Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans’ Call to Improve Judi­cial Coop­er­a­tion in Case Exposed by Mur­dered Lawyer Sergei Magnitsky

10 Novem­ber 2014 – For­eign min­istry offi­cials from the Coun­cil of Europe have issued a rejec­tion of demands by par­lia­men­tar­i­ans from 47-mem­ber states to improve inter­na­tion­al judi­cial coop­er­a­tion in the mon­ey laun­der­ing case exposed by mur­dered anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. 

Chaired by Mr E. Eyyubov, Deputy For­eign Affairs Min­is­ter of Azer­bai­jan, the Stras­bourg-based ambas­sadors com­pris­ing the Coun­cil of Europe’s Com­mit­tee of Min­is­ters, the inter­na­tion­al organisation’s deci­sion-mak­ing body, refused to pro­pose any con­crete mea­sures that par­lia­men­tar­i­ans have asked for in their Rec­om­men­da­tion enti­tled “Refus­ing Impuni­ty for the Killers of Sergei Mag­nit­sky” which was adopt­ed by over­whelm­ing major­i­ty in Jan­u­ary this year.

The par­lia­men­tar­i­ans of the Coun­cil of Europe’s Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly asked in their Jan­u­ary 2014 rec­om­men­da­tion the Com­mit­tee of For­eign Affairs Min­is­ters to:
“exam­ine ways and means of improv­ing inter­na­tion­al co-oper­a­tion in inves­ti­gat­ing the “mon­ey trail” of the funds orig­i­nat­ing in the fraud­u­lent tax reim­burse­ments denounced by Mr Mag­nit­sky; and, in par­tic­u­lar, of ensur­ing that the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion ful­ly par­tic­i­pates in these efforts.” (http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-EN.asp?fileid=20410&lang=en)

In the response to par­lia­men­tar­i­ans, the Com­mit­tee of Min­is­ters ignored the rec­om­men­da­tions com­plete­ly and changed the sub­ject cit­ing sev­er­al gen­er­al reports on Rus­sia issued by MONEYVAL, a Coun­cil of Europe’s body in the area of anti-mon­ey laun­der­ing. None of the reports exam­ine the $230 mil­lion mon­ey laun­der­ing case exposed by Sergei Mag­nit­sky in any way. 

“Although MONEYVAL does not address indi­vid­ual cas­es, it aims to pro­vide its mem­bers with the capac­i­ty to fight mon­ey-laun­der­ing with­in their bor­ders and to co-oper­ate in order to pre­vent trans­bor­der mon­ey-laun­der­ing. At the inter­na­tion­al lev­el, MONEYVAL works close­ly togeth­er with the Finan­cial Action Task Force on Mon­ey Laun­der­ing (FATF). The Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion is a mem­ber of both these bod­ies,” said the response from the Com­mit­tee of Min­is­ters to par­lia­men­tar­i­ans pub­lished on the offi­cial Coun­cil of Europe web­site (http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=21312&lang=en).

The diplo­mat­ic answer to Coun­cil of Europe’s par­lia­men­tar­i­ans from the Com­mit­tee of Min­is­ters adopt­ed at the Committee’s ses­sion on 22 and 24 Octo­ber in Stras­bourg fur­ther said: 

“The Com­mit­tee [of Min­is­ters] reit­er­ates its call for an effec­tive inves­ti­ga­tion and the bring­ing to jus­tice of those responsible.”

Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky cam­paign rep­re­sen­ta­tive said: 

“This strange bureau­crat­ic response is defy­ing the efforts of par­lia­men­tar­i­ans from 47 coun­tries in Europe to achieve some mea­sure of jus­tice in the Mag­nit­sky case. It is also an aban­don­ment of Sergei Mag­nit­sky who paid with his life try­ing to stop cor­rupt Russ­ian offi­cials from steal­ing mil­lions from his coun­try. The appoint­ed diplo­mats in Europe should heed the call from the elect­ed par­lia­men­tar­i­ans who have shown the resolve of the peo­ple to see that jus­tice is done.”

The par­lia­men­tar­i­ans’ rec­om­men­da­tion was based on the inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion into the Mag­nit­sky case con­duct­ed by Coun­cil of Europe’s Rap­por­teur, Swiss MP Andreas Gross, who con­clud­ed that there was a need to improve inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion in this case because of the high-lev­el cov­er up in this case in Russia.

Rap­por­teur Gross stated:
“My ini­tial con­clu­sion, name­ly that we are in the pres­ence of a mas­sive cov­er-up involv­ing senior offi­cials of the com­pe­tent min­istries, the Pros­e­cu­tor General’s Office, the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee and even cer­tain courts finds itself fur­ther con­sol­i­dat­ed.” (Report “Refus­ing the Impuni­ty for the Killers of Sergei Mag­nit­sky” http://www.assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/X2H-Xref-ViewPDF.asp?FileID=20084&lang=en).

Rap­por­teur Gross point­ed out that the mon­ey laun­der­ing exposed by Sergei Mag­nit­sky has been traced to a large num­ber of Euro­pean states which neces­si­tat­ed inter­na­tion­al judi­cial coop­er­a­tion in this case:

“The laun­der­ing of the funds that can be traced back to the fraud­u­lent US$230 mil­lion tax refund denounced by Mr Mag­nit­sky has involved a large num­ber of Euro­pean States… Giv­en the com­plex­i­ty of the crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tions required and the obvi­ous need for inter­na­tion­al co-oper­a­tion, the Assem­bly should also seize the Com­mit­tee of Min­is­ters in order to ensure that this impor­tant affair is includ­ed on the agen­da of inter­gov­ern­men­tal co-oper­a­tion.” (Adden­dum to Report “Refus­ing the Impuni­ty for the Killers of Sergei Mag­nit­sky”, http://www.assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/X2H-Xref-ViewPDF.asp?FileID=20345&lang=en)

Con­clu­sions expressed in the report “Refus­ing Impuni­ty for the Killers of Sergei Mag­nit­sky” pre­pared by Rap­por­teur Gross were adopt­ed by over­whelm­ing major­i­ty this Jan­u­ary by the 47-mem­ber state Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe (Res­o­lu­tion “Refus­ing the Impuni­ty for the Killers of Sergei Mag­nit­sky” http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=20409&lang=en).

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion please contact:

Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky campaign
Phone: +44 207 440 1777
Email: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
Web­site: http://lawandorderinrussia.org

Sergei Magnitsky Justice Campaigners Demand Transparent Investigation into the Suspicious Death in Moscow of Russian Actor and Civil Rights Activist Alexei Devotchenko

November 6, 2014

Sergei Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Cam­paign­ers Demand Trans­par­ent Inves­ti­ga­tion into the Sus­pi­cious Death in Moscow of Russ­ian Actor and Civ­il Rights Activist Alex­ei Devotchenko

6 Novem­ber 2014 — Cam­paign­ers for Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky demand a trans­par­ent inves­ti­ga­tion into yes­ter­day’s sus­pi­cious death in Moscow of Russ­ian actor, civ­il activist, and a friend of the Mag­nit­sky cam­paign Alex­ei Devotchenko.

Alex­ei Devotchenko was one of the few free voic­es left in Rus­sia who had not been killed, arrest­ed or forced into exile because of his way of thinking.

He was brave­ly speak­ing out against the polit­i­cal repres­sion, klep­toc­ra­cy and human rights vio­la­tions endorsed by Pres­i­dent Putin’s regime. Three years ago, in an act of protest against cor­rup­tion and polit­i­cal cen­sor­ship, Alex­ei Devotchenko returned the state hon­ours which had been per­son­al­ly award­ed to him by Pres­i­dent Putin in recog­ni­tion of his accom­plish­ments as an out­stand­ing actor. He explained it in an inter­view to Novy Region 2: “I am com­plete­ly fed up with this tzardom-state­dom. With its lies, cov­er-ups, state-sanc­tioned rob­bery, bribery and oth­er virtues…” (http://www.newsinfo.ru/news/2011 – 11-21/de­votchenko/766105/). Short­ly after­wards, he was attacked on a Moscow under­ground. Details of this inci­dent were report­ed on his facebook.
Last year, Alex­ei Devotchenko was a promi­nent fig­ure at the memo­r­i­al cer­e­mo­ny to mark the life and death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, held at the Sakharov cen­tre. Alex­ei Devotchenko read poems by Russ­ian poet and Nobel Prize lau­re­ate Joseph Brod­sky who was expelled from the Sovi­et Union in 1972. After­wards, he spoke about the dif­fi­cult choic­es that every free-think­ing Russ­ian has to make, and whether it’s safe for him and his fam­i­ly to stay in the coun­try giv­en the polit­i­cal repres­sions and blood­shed that could come of it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68UZDPLwtDY].
Yes­ter­day, Alex­ei Devotchenko was found dead with signs of vio­lence in a pool of blood near his apart­ment in Moscow. Despite ear­ly indi­ca­tions of a sus­pi­cious death, this morn­ing a ‘source’ in the Russ­ian law enforce­ment stat­ed that mur­der was exclud­ed, that the actor was a “drunk,” that the bruis­es were caused by glass fur­ni­ture in his apart­ment, and that a heart attack is a pos­si­ble expla­na­tion for his death (http://www.rg.ru/2014/11/06/devotchenko-site.html; http://www.interfax.ru/culture/405635).

‘We mourn the death of a coura­geous Russ­ian patri­ot Alex­ei Devotchenko. We believe that the Russ­ian pub­lic deserves to know what real­ly hap­pened. We are aware of the extent of cov­er up that is pos­si­ble. As we know from expe­ri­ence, it would not be the first time in Rus­sia that mur­der was cov­ered up by a “heart attack” and “drunk­en­ness.” We demand that the inves­ti­ga­tion of Alex­ei Devotchenko’s death is con­duct­ed open­ly and trans­par­ent­ly,” said a Sergei Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice cam­paign representative.

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Campaign
+44 2074401777
info@lawandorderinrussia.org
lawandorderinRussia.org

Коллеги Сергея Магнитского требуют расследовать обстоятельства гибели в Москве актера Алексея Девотченко

November 6, 2014

Коллеги Сергея Магнитского требуют расследовать обстоятельства гибели в Москве актера Алексея Девотченко

6 ноября 2014 года – Коллеги Сергея Магнитского выражают глубокие соболезнования родным, близки, всем, кто хорошо знал самобытного российского актера и человека с большой буквы Алексея Девотченко. Мы также требуем проведения гласного и полного расследования обстоятельств его гибели.

Алексей Девотченко был настоящим патриотом своей страны. Он занимал ответственную гражданскую позицию и не боялся публично высказываться против подавления в стране любого проявления свободомыслия. В знак протеста против политических репрессий, спонсируемых президентом Путиным, он отказался от врученных ему Путиным Государственных премий. Так он сам объяснил это в интервью «Новый регион 2»:

“Достало вконец все это царство-государство. Своим враньем, круговой порукой, узаконенным грабежом, взяточничеством и прочими доблестями.… А главное — невозможностью играть свои спектакли. Выстраданные и любимые”. http://www.newsinfo.ru/news/2011 – 11-21/de­votchenko/766105/.

В апреле прошлого года Алексей Девотченко выступил на вечере памяти Сергея Магнитского, где он читал стихи Иосифа Бродского, а после выступления говорил о тревожных предчувствиях и опасениях за семью, если они останутся в России (в силу политического гнета, протесты против которого приведут к кровопролитию). (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68UZDPLwtDY).

На теле погибшего актера Алексея Девотченко, по сообщениям прессы, были обнаружены внешние повреждения, в частности, ссадины на ногах и травма головы. 

«Мы скорбим об Алексее Девотченко. Мы настаиваем на проведении гласного и полного расследования обстоятельств его гибели. Мы хорошо знаем, как система умеет скрывать следы преступлений, пытаясь объяснить убийство «сердечным приступом» и «чрезмерным употреблением алкоголя». Так было в случае с Сергеем Магнитским. Только благодаря колоссальным усилиям и реакции всего общества этому удалось противостоять, но несмотря на это Следственный комитет России все равно закрыл дело об убийстве Сергея Магнитского. Мы не должны оставаться равнодушными к произволу и беззаконию. Поддержите наше требование », – сказал представитель программы «Справедливость для Сергея Магнитского».

Отправить Ваше требование провести тщательное и открытое расследование обстоятельств гибели актера Алексея Девотченко можно в Интернет-приемной Следственного комитета РФ по официальной ссылке на его сайте: http://www.sledcom.ru/internet-reception/

За дополнительной информацией обращайтесь:

Программа «Справедливость для Сергея Магнитского»
Телефон: +44 2074401777
info@lawandorderinrussia.org
www.lawandorderinRussia.org

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