Home of Russian opposition activist and Magnitsky Justice campaigner Natalia Pelevina is raided in Moscow

April 29, 2015

29 April 2015 – The Moscow home of Russ­ian oppo­si­tion activist Natalia Pelev­ina was raid­ed by police oper­a­tives and inves­tiga­tive com­mit­tee detec­tives on April 17 2015. Pelev­ina is an out­spo­ken sup­port­er of the Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Cam­paign, who worked close­ly with mur­dered oppo­si­tion leader Boris Nemtsov and cur­rent oppo­si­tion leader Mikhail Kasyanov, seek­ing to have more names added to the US Mag­nit­sky list. 

In a raid sim­i­lar to the 2008 arrest of whistle­blow­er lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, Russ­ian offi­cials stormed Pelevina’s apart­ment with a search war­rant signed by Judge Artur Kar­pov, the same judge who refused law­suits from the fam­i­ly of Sergei Mag­nit­sky to appeal the deci­sion not to inves­ti­gate Magnitsky’s murder. 

Accord­ing to Pelev­ina, “my phone was ripped out of my hand and I wasn’t allowed to call my lawyer. [The search] went on for hours, any­thing tech­ni­cal was con­fis­cat­ed along with mon­ey, pass­ports, and papers.”

Natalia Pelev­ina was then tak­en to the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee for inter­ro­ga­tion, which was led by Major Gen­er­al of Jus­tice Rus­tam Gab­dullin. She was inter­ro­gat­ed for four hours, dur­ing which time she became a sus­pect accused of orga­niz­ing and financ­ing the Bolot­naya street riots of May 2012, under Arti­cle 212, part 1 of the Russ­ian Constitution. 

“Need­less to say none of it is true and I had noth­ing to do with the 6 of May events, and wasn’t even on Bolot­naya that day,” said Pelevina. 

Pelev­ina was due to fly to Wash­ing­ton DC this week, to join mem­bers of US Con­gress and promi­nent Russ­ian activists in a sym­po­sium hon­our­ing the mem­o­ry of Boris Nemtsov, who was gunned down out­side the Krem­lin in Feb­ru­ary this year. Because her pass­port and mon­ey were seized, she is now unable to leave Moscow, and Bill Brow­der, leader of the Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Cam­paign, will be tak­ing her place on the panel. 

Bill Brow­der will also be tes­ti­fy­ing at a hear­ing on the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Act at the House Com­mit­tee on For­eign Affairs today. (http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-hearing-global-magnitsky-human-rights-accountability-act)

“Natalia Pelev­ina is a long time friend of the Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice cam­paign, whose only ‘crime’ was to speak out against the repres­sion and cor­rup­tion of the Putin regime,” said Bill Brow­der. “That she is now being per­se­cut­ed for a crime she did not com­mit, as Sergei Mag­nit­sky was, is clear and sin­is­ter evi­dence that the Putin regime is a police state, intent on stamp­ing out the voic­es of dissidents.”

Judge Artur Kar­pov has a his­to­ry of per­se­cut­ing dis­si­dents. On 28^th Feb­ru­ary 2014 he sanc­tioned the house arrest of Russ­ian oppo­si­tion leader Alex­ei Naval­ny (http://pravo.ru/news/view/102312/), and he also sanc­tioned the 2012 arrests of Bolot­naya square activists (http://bolotnoedelo.info/participants/butchers/652/karpov-artur).

He is the same judge that refused a law­suit from Magnitsky’s moth­er seek­ing to end the posthu­mous pro­ceed­ing against her son in March 2013, and a law­suit from Magnitsky’s col­league, Jami­son Fire­stone in May 2013, seek­ing to com­pel the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee to inves­ti­gate the tax offi­cials who approved the fraud­u­lent $230 mil­lion tax refund. In 2011 he also refused the law­suit from Magnitsky’s moth­er seek­ing to com­pel the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee to inves­ti­gate the tor­ture and mur­der of her son.

Sergei Magnitsky’s house was raid­ed by Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials in 2008, after he uncov­ered a $230 mil­lion fraud com­mit­ted by cor­rupt gov­ern­ment offi­cials and tes­ti­fied against those involved. He was arrest­ed dur­ing the raid, tor­tured in pre-tri­al deten­tion for a year in an effort to get him to retract his tes­ti­mo­ny, and was even­tu­al­ly killed in prison in 2009.

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

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

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