Association of Russian Judges Denies Magnitsky’s Mother Public Hearing on the Role of the Russian Judiciary in her Son’s Death

January 9, 2014

The Asso­ci­a­tion of Russ­ian Judges has refused a request from Sergei Magnitsky’s moth­er to pub­licly dis­cuss the role of judges in her son’s per­se­cu­tion, ill-treat­ment and death. It said that it “can­not dis­cuss” the mat­ter in spite of the fact that last year its region­al divi­sion had dis­cussed the mat­ter and issued a res­o­lu­tion in a closed forum secret­ly from Magnitsky’s fam­i­ly and human rights groups.

“The Asso­ci­a­tion of Russ­ian Judges is try­ing to white­wash the role of the judi­cia­ry in Sergei Magnitsky’s death by refus­ing a pub­lic air­ing of the facts,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative. 

Last year, four Moscow judges were includ­ed in the the U.S. Government’s Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions list. Each of these four Russ­ian judges approved the deten­tion of Sergei Mag­nit­sky on false grounds. They refused his peti­tions about the unlaw­ful­ness of his arrest, about the fab­ri­ca­tion of evi­dence by FSB and Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials, and about his ill-treat­ment and denial of med­ical care in cus­tody. Judge Stashina extend­ed Sergei Magnitsky’s deten­tion and refused all his peti­tions on 12 Novem­ber 2009, four days before his mur­der in police custody.

After the U.S. Gov­ern­ment announced the inclu­sion of the four Moscow judges on the Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions list, the Moscow judges asso­ci­a­tion held a closed meet­ing on 22 April 2013, at which it passed a res­o­lu­tion “con­demn­ing” the inclu­sion of the four judges on the sanc­tions list. The res­o­lu­tion of the Moscow judges asso­ci­a­tion was then broad­cast on state TV chan­nels and pub­lished on the Moscow City Court’s web­site. The res­o­lu­tion said that the Moscow judges asso­ci­a­tion found no rea­son “to doubt in any way the law­ful­ness and fair­ness of the actions” of their four col­leagues upon review of their “per­son­al file”. 

When Magnitsky’s moth­er learned of this res­o­lu­tion, she wrote an open let­ter in Novaya Gaze­ta News­pa­per request­ing a pub­lic dis­cus­sion of the role of judges in her son’s ill-treat­ment and death. She asked the Asso­ci­a­tion of Russ­ian Judges to invite Magnitsky’s fam­i­ly and the human rights experts to the hear­ing. How­ev­er, the Asso­ci­a­tion of Russ­ian Judges refused her plea on the ground that the Moscow judges asso­ci­a­tion through its Pre­sid­i­um had already expressed their position.

“The Pre­sid­i­um of the Coun­cil of Judges of the City of Moscow …has deemed it nec­es­sary to con­demn the inclu­sion of judges Ukhnal­e­va, Stashina, Krivoruchko and Podoprig­orov in the Mag­nit­sky list…Taking into account the nature of the stat­ed opin­ion expressed by the body of the judi­cial com­mu­ni­ty, the res­o­lu­tion of the Pre­sid­i­um of the Coun­cil of Judges of the City of Moscow can­not be a mat­ter for review by the Coun­cil of Judges of the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion,” said Vic­tor Faleev, chair of the Dis­ci­pli­nary Com­mis­sion of the Russ­ian Judges Asso­ci­a­tion. Mr Faleev indi­cat­ed that he act­ed on orders from the chair of Russ­ian Judges Association. 

“The Moscow res­o­lu­tion “con­demn­ing” the inclu­sion of four judges in the Mag­nit­sky case on the sanc­tions list is ful­ly rem­i­nis­cent of the Sovi­et times, when pro­fes­sion­al asso­ci­a­tions unan­i­mous­ly con­demned dis­si­dents and any efforts of for­eign gov­ern­ments to help them,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

The role of judges in the unlaw­ful arrest and deten­tion of Mag­nit­sky and his ill-treat­ment in cus­tody was high­light­ed in the two inde­pen­dent reports pub­lished by the Moscow Over­sight Com­mis­sion and the Human Rights Coun­cil of the Russ­ian Pres­i­dent. Yet, their con­clu­sions have been ignored by the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment inves­ti­ga­tion into Mr Magnitsky’s death which was closed last year by the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee for “lack of the event of crime.”

For more infor­ma­tion please contact:

Russ­ian Judges Association

+7 (495) 609 55 01; 609 55 03

Ssrf@ssrf.ru

8 Bar­rikad­naya, build­ing 4, Moscow 123995

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