Council of Europe Calls on Russia to Cease Posthumous Case Against Magnitsky and the Persecution of Other Hermitage Lawyers

January 23, 2014

A draft res­o­lu­tion enti­tled, “Refus­ing Impuni­ty for the Killers of Sergei Mag­nit­sky,” will be vot­ed on next week by the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe. The res­o­lu­tion calls on Russ­ian author­i­ties to stop the posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, cease pres­sure on his fam­i­ly, and stop the per­se­cu­tion of oth­er Her­mitage lawyers, includ­ing bar­ris­ter Eduard Khairet­di­nov, who rep­re­sent­ed the Her­mitage Fund in Rus­sia to defend against the $230 mil­lion fraud uncov­ered by Sergei Magnitsky. 
The draft Mag­nit­sky res­o­lu­tion says:

“The Assem­bly urges the com­pe­tent Russ­ian authorities…to close the posthu­mous tri­al against Mr Mag­nit­sky and cease putting pres­sure on his moth­er and his wid­ow to par­tic­i­pate in these pro­ceed­ings; to cease the per­se­cu­tion of oth­er lawyers act­ing for the true own­ers of the fraud­u­lent­ly re-reg­is­tered com­pa­nies [of the Her­mitage Fund].” (http://www.assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-DocDetails-EN.asp?fileid=20084&wrqid=0&wrqref=&ref=1&lang=EN)

Sergei Mag­nit­sky was arrest­ed short­ly after he tes­ti­fied about the involve­ment of Russ­ian offi­cials in the theft of Her­mitage Fund’s com­pa­nies and of $230 mil­lion they had paid in tax­es to the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment. The Russ­ian offi­cials also tar­get­ed all oth­er lawyers who defend­ed Her­mitage against this fraud with crim­i­nal cas­es, search­es and sum­mons­es. These actions by Russ­ian author­i­ties have been denounced in an ear­li­er res­o­lu­tion adopt­ed by the Coun­cil of Europe on 30 Sep­tem­ber 2009, a month and a half before Magnitsky’s killing in custody. 

One of the per­se­cut­ed lawyers is Eduard Khairet­di­nov, an inde­pen­dent bar­ris­ter and for­mer judge, who was respon­si­ble for fil­ing the first com­plaint with Russ­ian law enforce­ment bod­ies on behalf of the Her­mitage Fund, three weeks before $230 mil­lion was stolen from the bud­get. The com­plaint sought to ini­ti­ate an inves­ti­ga­tion and named Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers Kar­pov and Kuznetsov. Sev­er­al months after the com­plaint was filed, Kuznet­zov sought to open a crim­i­nal case against bar­ris­ter Khairet­di­nov himself. 

The crim­i­nal case against bar­ris­ter Khairet­di­nov in Rus­sia claims that he act­ed on a false pow­er of attor­ney because, accord­ing to the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee, the only peo­ple who could have giv­en him a legit­i­mate pow­er of attor­ney were the peo­ple who stole the Her­mitage com­pa­nies. The case has remained open for five years despite numer­ous appeals from asso­ci­a­tions of lawyers from around the world and the absur­di­ty of the charges.
“The lawyers who act­ed on behalf of the true own­ers of the fraud­u­lent­ly re-reg­is­tered com­pa­nies [of the Her­mitage Fund], in order to help them regain con­trol, are now being pros­e­cut­ed for act­ing on false pow­er of attor­ney, as they had not obtained their pow­ers from the false own­ers of the com­pa­nies,” says the draft PACE Res­o­lu­tion on the plight of lawyers whose only mis­for­tune was to rep­re­sent the “wrong” client.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky spoke in defence of his col­leagues from cus­tody. In his last writ­ten state­ment pre­pared for the court, he said:
“Inves­ti­ga­tor [of the Inte­ri­or Min­istry] Silchenko does not wish to iden­ti­fy oth­er per­sons who made this [$230 mil­lion] fraud pos­si­ble [oth­er than a sawmill employ­ee Vic­tor Markelov]; he wish­es instead that the lawyers for the Her­mitage Fund who strived and con­tin­ue to strive for the inves­ti­ga­tion of this case are forced to leave the coun­try, or like me, are kept in cus­tody.” (http://russian-untouchables.com/docs/D85-zayavlenie-magnitskogo-o-politmotivirovannosti-12 – 11-2009.pdf)
Ear­li­er this month, bar­ris­ter Khairet­di­nov filed sev­er­al com­plaints against his unlaw­ful pros­e­cu­tion, seek­ing the case to be closed because it is unlaw­ful and based on false grounds. Infor­ma­tion on the out­come of his com­plaints is not yet available.

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