Russia is Preparing for a Showdown at Interpol to Seek the Arrest of William Browder – CEO of Hermitage Capital & Leader of Magnitsky Justice Campaign for the 3^rd time

November 17, 2014

As the world marks the fifth anniver­sary of the mur­der in Russ­ian police cus­tody of Her­mitage Capital’s lawyer, Sergei Mag­nit­sky, the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment is push­ing Inter­pol to arrest William Brow­der, CEO of Her­mitage and leader of the Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice campaign.

The deci­sion on Mr Brow­der will be a test case for the new lead­er­ship at Inter­pol.  Mr Jür­gen Stock from the Ger­man Fed­er­al Crim­i­nal Police was elect­ed on 7 Novem­ber 2014 as Interpol’s new Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary, replac­ing US rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ron Noble (http://www.interpol.int/About-INTERPOL/Structure-and-governance/J%C3%BCrgen-Stock), and for­mer Croa­t­ian judge Nina Vajić was appoint­ed as chair to Inter­pol’s Com­mis­sion for Con­trol of Files in Sep­tem­ber 2014, replac­ing for­mer Irish Data Pro­tec­tion Com­mis­sion­er Bil­ly Hawkes (http://www.interpol.int/News-and-media/News/2014/N2014-165).

Inter­pol’s Com­mis­sion for Con­trol of Files will be decid­ing on the Russ­ian government’s third Red Notice appli­ca­tion for Brow­der at the meet­ing on Novem­ber 20^th - 21^st 2014 at the Inter­pol head­quar­ters in Lyon. The Inter­pol Com­mis­sion reject­ed Russia’s pre­vi­ous two appli­ca­tions for Brow­der as “pre­dom­i­nant­ly polit­i­cal” and con­trary to Interpol’s Constitution.

“Rus­sia has clear­ly dis­re­gard­ed Interpol’s two pre­vi­ous deci­sions on Mr Browder’s case as polit­i­cal, and con­tin­ues to press Inter­pol on the basis of a bar­bar­ic posthu­mous tri­al and doc­u­ments pre­pared by Russ­ian offi­cials in the Mag­nit­sky case who have been sanc­tioned in the West,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

The Brow­der-led Mag­nit­sky jus­tice cam­paign has been cred­it­ed with suc­cess­ful­ly impos­ing US visa and finan­cial sanc­tions on Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials and judges respon­si­ble for Sergei Magnitsky’s arrest, ill-treat­ment and death in custody.

Now Rus­sia is press­ing Inter­pol to arrest Mr Brow­der on the basis of the Russ­ian case orga­nized by those same sanc­tioned Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials and judges. The case has been ongo­ing for many years, and has been high­light­ed by the Coun­cil of Europe as emblem­at­ic of polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed abus­es of the jus­tice sys­tem in Russia.

Rus­si­a’s third request to Inter­pol for Brow­der’s arrest is based on that same case, which cul­mi­nat­ed last year in Rus­sia with the con­vic­tions of Sergei Mag­nit­sky posthu­mous­ly and Mr Brow­der in absen­tia as “co-con­spir­a­tors” in the first-ever posthu­mous tri­al in Russ­ian his­to­ry.  It is only the sec­ond posthu­mous tri­al in Euro­pean his­to­ry, since the 897 Cadav­er Syn­od when Pope For­mo­sus’ remains were dug out of the ground to face charges after a ver­dict by Pope Stephen VI that the deceased had been unwor­thy of the pontificate.

Today’s equiv­a­lent of Pope Stephen VI is Russ­ian judge Igor Alisov. He presided over the posthu­mous tri­al of Sergei Mag­nit­sky and in absen­tia tri­al against Brow­der in July 2013, and one month lat­er he was pro­mot­ed by Russia’s Pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin.  In May 2014, Judge Alisov was placed on the Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions list by the US Government.

Judge Ele­na Stashina is anoth­er Russ­ian judge involved in the posthumous/in absen­tia pro­ceed­ings against Mag­nit­sky and Brow­der. Under the same case, she signed the arrest war­rant for Mr Brow­der and ear­li­er for Mr Mag­nit­sky. Serv­ing as the Tver­skoi dis­trict judge in Moscow when Sergei Mag­nit­sky was alive, she reject­ed his com­plaints about cru­el treat­ment and vio­la­tions of his rights, and extend­ed his deten­tion with­out tri­al just four days before he was killed.

Judge Stashina has also been sanc­tioned by the US Gov­ern­ment under the “Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act of 2012.”

This week it will be up to Interpol’s Com­mis­sion, led by Ms Vajic with four spe­cial­ists from Cana­da, France, Turkey, and Mau­ri­tius, to decide whether to uphold Interpol’s two pre­vi­ous rejec­tions of the Russ­ian request, or to approve the request, using the posthu­mous tri­al as the basis for that change in posi­tion.  The lat­est Russ­ian request forms part of the Russ­ian state’s polit­i­cal attack against Mr Brow­der, which has been ongo­ing for sev­er­al years.

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