Новая презентация по делу Магнитского опровергает ложь Андрея Некрасова фактами и документами

June 13, 2016

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Новая презентация по делу Магнитского опровергает ложь Андрея Некрасова фактами и документами 

13 июня 2016 года – В новой 44-страничной презентации по делу Магнитского (http://russian-untouchables.com/docs/Nekrasov%20Lies%20MAIN%20Presentation%20FINAL%20(RUS).pdf), подготовленной международной программой «Справедливость для Магнитского», на основании ранее известных и новых документов разоблачена ложь Андрея Некрасова и его фильма о Сергее Магнитском. 

Андрей Некрасов выдает себя за «независимого» эксперта в деле Магнитского, а на деле выступает на стороне чиновников-коррупционеров. 

«Фильм Некрасова – это лживая фабрикация в интересах лиц, обогатившихся на раскрытом Сергеем Магнитским преступлении», — сказал представитель программы «Справедливость для Магнитского».

Анти-Магнитский фильм Некрасова фактически повторяет версию освобожденных от уголовной ответственности в России преступников, похитивших из российского бюджета более 5,4 миллиарда рублей. 

Фильм продвигается сегодня на Западе в первую очередь в интересах Дениса Кацыва, обвиненного прокуратурой США и Швейцарии в отмывании части похищенных из российского бюджета 5,4 миллиардов рублей, работающими на него пиарщиками, юристами и лоббистами. Активы Кацыва заморожены по делу об отмывании 5,4 миллиардов рублей, согласно решениям судов в США и Швейцарии.

В своем фильме Андрей Некрасов пытается опровергнуть ранее установленные независимыми экспертами факты. Он утверждает, что Сергея Магнитского не избивали перед смертью и что Магнитский не называл имен сотрудников МВД Карпова и Кузнецова в своих показаниях. Эта ложь Некрасова опровергается актом о смерти Магнитского, содержащим указание на черепно-мозговую травму, актом о применении наручников и резиновой палки, заключением посмертной судебно-медицинской экспертизы, установившей, что побои были нанесены «тупым, твердым предметом», каковым и является «резиновая палка». Что же касается сотрудников МВД Карпова и Кузнецова, то в показаниях Сергея Магнитского от 5 июня 2008 года по делу о хищении компаний Her­mitage, данных им за 5 месяцев до ареста, фамилии «Карпова» и «Кузнецова» упоминаются 27 раз. 

В презентации «Ложь в новом «документальном» фильме Андрея Некрасова о Сергее Магнитском» рассказывается, как Некрасов не стесняется посмертно обвинить Магнитского в краже 5,4 миллиардов рублей, несмотря на то, что похищенные из бюджета деньги и приобретенные на эти деньги активы были найдены у мужа налоговой чиновницы Ольги Степановой, одобрившей за один день мошеннический возврат средств на счета преступников, а также у двух ее заместителей, и на швейцарских счетах компаний сына чиновника Петра Кацыва и друга Президента Путина Сергея Ролдугина.

На презентации фильма Некрасова в апреле этого года в Брюсселе присутствовали Павел Карпов и Андрей Павлов, на которых Магнитский указывал в своих показаниях по делу о краже компаний Her­mitage, а также адвокат Дениса Кацыва Наталья Весельницкая. 

Следующая премьера фильма Андрея Некрасова ожидается вечером в понедельник, 13 июня 2016 года, в Вашингтоне. Организацией этого “частного показа” занимается американская лоббистская фирма «Потомак Сквейр Груп» при участии Рината Ахметшина, который по сообщениям американской печати является бывшим сотрудником советской военной разведки (https://books.google.co.uk/books?isbn=1588366464).

Сергей Магнитский, раскрывший схему хищения 5,4 миллиардов рублей и давший показания против чиновников, был арестован по сфабрикованному обвинению, в течение 358 дней удерживался в заключении и был убит 16 ноября 2009 года в следственном изоляторе «Матросская тишина» в возрасте 37 лет.

О подробностях дела Сергея Магнитского читайте в книге Уильяма Браудера «Красный циркуляр», ставшей международным бестселлером. Книга доступна российскому читателю в электронном виде бесплатно: http://www.billbrowder.com/Portals/0/downloads/Browder_Red Notice_RU_FINAL.pdf

Программа «Справедливость для Сергея Магнитского»
+44 207 440 1777
e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
www.lawandorderinrussia.org
www.facebook.com/russianuntouchables
Twit­ter: @Billbrowder

Deliberate Lies of Nekrasov’s Anti-Magnitsky Film Exposed in a New 50-page Presentation by Magnitsky Justice Campaign

June 13, 2016

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Delib­er­ate Lies of Nekrasov’s Anti-Mag­nit­sky Film Exposed in a New 50-page Pre­sen­ta­tion by Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Campaign

13 June 2016 – Today, in advance of a pri­vate screen­ing at New­se­um in Wash­ing­ton of an anti-Mag­nit­sky film direct­ed by Russ­ian film­mak­er Andrei Nekrasov, the Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Cam­paign has released a 50-page pre­sen­ta­tion expos­ing the film’s delib­er­ate mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tions. The pre­sen­ta­tion con­tains links to 25 doc­u­ments expos­ing the lies of the film.

The pre­sen­ta­tion can be down­loaded here: http://russian-untouchables.com/docs/Nekrasov%20Lies%20Presentaion%20June%20(ENG)%20NEW%20JUNE%202016%20v%202.pdf

“Andrei Nekrasov’s movie is a com­plete fab­ri­ca­tion. He pro­motes the Russ­ian gov­ern­men­t’s false ver­sion of events. He claims Sergei Mag­nit­sky died of nat­ur­al caus­es and did not tes­ti­fy against Russ­ian police offi­cers. Both claims are con­tra­dict­ed by offi­cial doc­u­ments which show evi­dence of Magnitsky’s beat­ing in police cus­tody in the last hours of his life, and the text of the tes­ti­mo­ny by Mag­nit­sky before his arrest, in which he names the cor­rupt Russ­ian police offi­cers 27 times,” said William Brow­der, leader of the glob­al Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice movement.

Nekrasov’s film tries to present the sto­ry­line that the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment was the vic­tim in the whole affair instead of the mur­dered Sergei Magnitsky.

“This film is a shame­less attempt to export the Russ­ian gov­ern­men­t’s pro­pa­gan­da to the West. In Rus­sia, cor­rupt offi­cials and crim­i­nals exposed by Sergei Mag­nit­sky enjoy impuni­ty and now they are try­ing to use a pur­port­ed­ly inde­pen­dent film­mak­er to avoid account­abil­i­ty in the West,” said William Browder.

To pre­pare his film, Andrei Nekrasov worked with some of the Russ­ian per­pe­tra­tors and ben­e­fi­cia­ries of the US$230 mil­lion fraud exposed by Sergei Mag­nit­sky. The same per­sons are involved in the film’s pro­mo­tion in Europe and in the USA. In par­tic­u­lar, the film is pro­mot­ed by agents of Denis Kat­syv, the son of the Russ­ian offi­cial, whose assets have been frozen by the US and Swiss courts because of alleged involve­ment in mon­ey laun­der­ing of pro­ceeds of the fraud uncov­ered by Sergei Magnitsky.

“The pur­pose of Andrei Nekrasov’s film is to absolve cor­rupt Russ­ian offi­cials and indi­vid­u­als who were involved in and ben­e­fit­ed from the US$230 mil­lion fraud uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky. Some of them have been part of the film’s prepa­ra­tion and pro­mo­tion,” said William Browder.

In his film, Andrei Nekrasov false­ly claims that Mag­nit­sky did not uncov­er the US$230 mil­lion cor­rupt scheme and instead was its per­pe­tra­tor. This claim is con­tra­dict­ed by law enforce­ment inves­ti­ga­tions in 11 coun­tries who have traced pro­ceeds of the US$230 mil­lion crime to assets of Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials and their rel­a­tives, includ­ing real estate in the US, Dubai and Swiss bank accounts. In par­tic­u­lar, funds were received on a Swiss account of Vladlen Stepanov, hus­band of Russ­ian tax offi­cial Olga Stepano­va who approved a por­tion of the fraud­u­lent US$230 mil­lion tax refund, and paid for prop­er­ties for two of Stepanova’s deputies in the Russ­ian Tax Office No 28 which approved the fraud­u­lent tax refund.

The Pana­ma Papers have also con­nect­ed pro­ceeds of the US$230 mil­lion fraud uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky, to a close friend of Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin, Sergei Roldug­in, who received funds on his cor­po­rate Swiss account.

Russ­ian human rights activists who con­duct­ed an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion into the Magnitsky’s case under the Russ­ian President’s Human Rights Coun­cil, includ­ing Moscow Helsin­ki Group chair Lud­mi­la Alex­ee­va, and head of the Moscow Pub­lic Over­sight Com­mis­sion Valery Borschev, have denounced the anti-Mag­nit­sky film in pub­lic state­ments pub­lished in May 2016:
http://www.novayagazeta.ru/politics/72940.html; http://www.novayagazeta.ru/politics/72931.html .

The Coun­cil of Europe has exposed the fal­si­ty of Nekrasov’s claim that the Coun­cil of Europe’s inves­ti­ga­tion relied only on doc­u­ments from William Brow­der, stat­ing the Coun­cil of Europe exam­ined all doc­u­ments, includ­ing those received direct­ly from the Russ­ian government.

“In fact, in the report adopt­ed in Jan­u­ary 2014 by the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe, the work­ing meth­ods and sources of infor­ma­tion for the rap­por­teur can be found. These include two vis­its to Moscow, meet­ing with senior rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Russ­ian author­i­ties, with lead­ing human rights defend­ers and offi­cial doc­u­ments that have been trans­mit­ted direct­ly from Russ­ian author­i­ties,” said First Deputy Chair­man of the Legal and Human Rights Com­mit­tee of the Coun­cil of Europe Bernd Fab­ri­tius on 24 May 2016: http://www.berndfabritius.de/pressemitteilung/bernd-fabritius-antwortet-auf-die-desinformationskampagne-gegen-den-bericht-der-parlamentarischen-versammlung-zum-fall-sergej-magnitzki/.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, Hermitage’s lawyer who uncov­ered the US$230 mil­lion fraud and tes­ti­fied about the com­plic­i­ty of Russ­ian offi­cials in it, was false­ly arrest­ed, detained for 358 days with­out tri­al, tor­tured and killed in Russ­ian police cus­tody at the age of 37. The events of this case are described in the New-York Times best-sell­er “Red Notice” by William Brow­der and in a series of cam­paign videos on Youtube chan­nel “Russ­ian Untouchables.”

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky
+44 207 440 1777
e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
www.lawandorderinrussia.org
www.billbrowder.com
twitter.com/Billbrowder

Second Circuit Court in NY Will Hear Arguments on Disqualification of Law Firm Baker Hostetler for Ethical Violations in the Magnitsky Case

June 9, 2016

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Sec­ond Cir­cuit Court in NY Will Hear Argu­ments on Dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion of Law Firm Bak­er Hostetler for Eth­i­cal Vio­la­tions in the Mag­nit­sky Case

9 June 2016 – Today, the Unit­ed States Court of Appeals for the Sec­ond Cir­cuit will hear the argu­ment on the dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion of law firm Bak­er Hostetler because of their dis­loy­al­ty and con­flict of inter­est in the US$230 Mil­lion Russ­ian Fraud case uncov­ered by Sergei Magnitsky.

The con­flict of inter­est stems from Bak­er Hostetler’s cur­rent rep­re­sen­ta­tion of Pre­ve­zon, a Cyprus com­pa­ny owned by a son of Russ­ian offi­cial accused by the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice of laun­der­ing pro­ceeds of the US$230 mil­lion fraud uncov­ered by Hermitage’s Russ­ian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

Pre­vi­ous­ly, in 2008 – 2009, Bak­er Hostetler rep­re­sent­ed Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment, the vic­tims of the US$230 mil­lion fraud, and assist­ed in Hermitage’s efforts to iden­ti­fy ben­e­fi­cia­ries of this fraud and report them to the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice for pros­e­cu­tion and for­fei­ture of assets. 

Sev­er­al years lat­er Her­mitage iden­ti­fied Pre­ve­zon as one of the sus­pect­ed ben­e­fi­cia­ries of the US$230 mil­lion fraud and report­ed it to the US Jus­tice Depart­ment. At that time, Bak­er Hostetler inex­plic­a­bly changed sides and showed up to defend Pre­ve­zon against the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice lawsuit.

Bak­er Hostetler then mount­ed an attack on Her­mitage, the vic­tim of the fraud, false­ly accus­ing Her­mitage of com­plic­i­ty in that same fraud. This vio­la­tion of the duty to its for­mer client led Her­mitage to fil­ing for the dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion of Bak­er Hostetler. The case is now in front of the Court of Appeals for the 2^nd Circuit.

“This con­duct sounds improp­er because it is improp­er,” said Her­mitage in their court filing.

“This Court has rec­og­nized that main­tain­ing the “del­i­cate” bal­ance between the right to “freely cho­sen coun­sel and the need to main­tain the high­est eth­i­cal stan­dards of pro­fes­sion­al respon­si­bil­i­ty … is essen­tial if the public’s trust in the integri­ty of the Bar is to be pre­served.” Even casu­al observers are tak­en aback by Bak­er Hostetler’s con­duct in this case, where it is defend­ing a cur­rent client by false­ly accus­ing a for­mer client of a crime,” said Hermitage’s court filing.

Bak­er Hostetler hired Michael Mukasey, for­mer U.S. Attor­ney Gen­er­al, of coun­sel with Debevoise & Plimp­ton LLP, to defend them­selves against Hermitage’s dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion motion.

Debevoise & Plimp­ton LLP was pre­vi­ous­ly hired by Andrey Pavlov, iden­ti­fied by the US Jus­tice Depart­ment as a mem­ber of the Russ­ian crim­i­nal enter­prise involved in the US$230 fraud scheme, to lob­by the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment to exclude his name from their Mag­nit­sky Sanc­tions List. Despite Debevoise & Plimpton’s inter­ven­tion, the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment includ­ed Pavlov in a 32-per­son Sanc­tions List approved in April 2014.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, Hermitage’s lawyer who uncov­ered the US$230 mil­lion fraud and tes­ti­fied about the com­plic­i­ty of Russ­ian offi­cials in it, was false­ly arrest­ed, detained for 358 days with­out tri­al, tor­tured and killed in Russ­ian police cus­tody at the age of 37. The events of this case are described in the New-York Times best-sell­er “Red Notice” by William Brow­der and in a series of cam­paign videos on Youtube chan­nel “Russ­ian Untouch­ables.” Recent­ly, thanks to the “Pana­ma Papers”, pro­ceeds of US$230 mil­lion fraud uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky, were traced to Swiss account of a com­pa­ny owned by Sergei Roldug­in, a close friend of Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin.

The court hear­ing on the dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion of Bak­er Hostetler will begin at 10am, 9 June 2016, at room 1703 of the Thur­good Mar­shall Cour­t­house, 40 Foley Square in New York.

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky
+44 207 440 1777
e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
www.lawandorderinrussia.org
www.billbrowder.com
twitter.com/Billbrowder

Museum of Journalism and Free Speech in Washington to Screen US Premiere of Kremlin anti-Magnitsky Propaganda Film

June 8, 2016

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Muse­um of Jour­nal­ism and Free Speech in Wash­ing­ton to Screen US Pre­miere of Krem­lin anti-Mag­nit­sky Pro­pa­gan­da Film

 

8 June 2016 – On Mon­day, 13 June 2016, Nor­we­gian PirayaFilms AS plans to screen the anti-Mag­nit­sky pro­pa­gan­da film at the free speech muse­um in Wash­ing­ton, New­se­um, at 6:30 pm.

 

In an anony­mous email sent yes­ter­day from a “The Mag­nit­sky Act Screen­ing” gmail account:  themagnitskyactscreening@gmail.com to an undis­closed list of recip­i­ents, Piraya Films AS invites to “a spe­cial screen­ing of The Mag­nit­sky Act with recep­tion and Q&A by Direc­tor Andrei Nekrasov mod­er­at­ed by Sey­mour Hersh.”  The event is to take place at the Newseum’s Knight Con­fer­ence Cen­ter, 7^th floor.

 

Nor­we­gian Piraya Films AS intends for mem­bers of the US Con­gress and their staffers to attend the screen­ing, saying:

 

“This event com­plies with con­gres­sion­al gift rules so that Mem­bers and staff of the U.S. Sen­ate and House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives may attend.”

 

The atten­dance at the screen­ing is to be tight­ly con­trolled. The guests are told that “pho­to iden­ti­fi­ca­tion will be required for entry into this event as it is by invi­ta­tion only” and that the invi­ta­tion itself is “not trans­ferrable.”

 

The anti-Mag­nit­sky pro­pa­gan­da film, con­tain­ing an entire­ly false and defam­a­to­ry nar­ra­tive of the Russ­ian author­i­ties, was direct­ed by Russ­ian film­mak­er Andrei Nekrasov, who sup­port­ed Putin’s inva­sion into Ukraine, and pro­duced by a Nor­we­gian film com­pa­ny asso­ci­at­ed with him, called Piraya Film AS.

 

“The lies pre­sent­ed in the anti-Mag­nit­sky film are not new, and are based on the past nar­ra­tive from the Russ­ian author­i­ties who cov­ered up the mur­der of Sergei Mag­nit­sky and the crim­i­nals who stole $230 mil­lion from the Russ­ian peo­ple – the crime Mag­nit­sky exposed,” said William Brow­der, leader of the glob­al Mag­nit­sky jus­tice move­ment and author of “Red Notice: How I Became Putin’s No 1 Ene­my.”

 

“How­ev­er, the grandiose and brazen fal­si­fi­ca­tion in the anti-Mag­nit­sky film because of its scope and the ram­i­fi­ca­tion for inter­na­tion­al pol­i­cy towards Rus­sia is akin to oth­er attempts to re-write his­to­ry and fal­si­fy the truth, seen in the case of Sovi­ets’ deny­ing their involve­ment in the Katyn mas­sacre or claims deny­ing that the Holo­caust exist­ed,” said William Browder.

 

Russ­ian human rights activists who con­duct­ed an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion into the Magnitsky’s case have pub­licly denounced the anti-Mag­nit­sky film.

 

Lud­mi­la Alex­ee­va, head of the Moscow Helsin­ki Group, and one of the last sur­viv­ing lead­ers of the Sovi­et dis­si­dent move­ment, said on 4 May 2016:

 

“The high-pro­file expo­sure of cor­rup­tion was start­ed specif­i­cal­ly by Sergei Mag­nit­sky. That is why it is so impor­tant for the peo­ple com­plic­it in the con­spir­a­cy to defame Mag­nit­sky and the evi­dence which he made pub­lic. As a result, this film appeared…  To try to show that every­thing — what Mag­nit­sky first said, then the Pana­ma leaks – are non­sense. What they want is to revoke sanc­tions. They decid­ed to start with the dis­avow­ing of the Mag­nit­sky list.”

 

“I have no idea who specif­i­cal­ly is behind this [Andrei Nekrasov’s] film and who hired the author, I have no idea. But one thing is clear – these are the peo­ple who are very inter­est­ed to dis­avow the evi­dence of cor­rup­tion, which start­ed to emerge first with the case of Mag­nit­sky (and thanks to Mag­nit­sky), and con­tin­ues to emerge, but on a glob­al scale (such as the Pana­ma leaks),” said Lud­mi­la Alex­ee­va (http://www.novayagazeta.ru/politics/72940.html).

 

Valery Borschev, head of the Moscow Pub­lic Over­sight Com­mis­sion, an inde­pen­dent pan­el that under Russ­ian law inves­ti­gat­ed Magnitsky’s death since 2009, said on 2 May 2016:

 

“I state firm­ly: the film does not reflect the true state of affairs in part con­cern­ing the deten­tion of Mag­nit­sky.” (http://www.novayagazeta.ru/politics/72931.html).

 

When the anti-Mag­nit­sky film was first pro­posed in April 2016 for a screen­ing at the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment in Brus­sels by Finnish MEP Hei­di Hau­ta­la, the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly made a pub­lic state­ment against any form of dis­tri­b­u­tion of this film because of its false and defam­a­to­ry content.

 

The Euro­pean par­lia­ment then can­celled the film screen­ing on 27 April 2016. Short­ly after, the French TV net­work ARTE declined to broad­cast the anti-Mag­nit­sky film in May 2016. The Ger­man TV sta­tion ZDF also declined to broad­cast the film in May 2016.

 

Yes­ter­day, on June 7, 2016, fol­low­ing an appli­ca­tion to the Oslo City Court for an injunc­tion by the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly, the Nor­we­gian film fes­ti­val, Kort­film­fes­ti­valen, with­drew the anti-Mag­nit­sky film pro­duced by Piraya Films AS from its pro­gram on June 9 – 10, 2016. Judge Hen­ning Kris­tiansen signed the tran­script of the pro­ceed­ing, which con­firms that the fes­ti­val will not show the film in any version.

 

“No pub­lic inter­est dic­tates spread­ing of an untrue and gross­ly defam­a­to­ry film of this nature. As pre­vi­ous­ly men­tioned, defama­tion in the film includes the “acquit­tal” of Russ­ian author­i­ties for gross cor­rup­tion and seri­ous human rights vio­la­tions in the Mag­nit­sky case. The pub­lic is not well served by dis­in­for­ma­tion,” said the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly in their injunc­tion appli­ca­tion to the Oslo court.

 

Piraya Films AS is co-owned by Nor­we­gians Bjarte Mørn­er Tveit and Torstein Grude, who also serve as Piraya Films’s CEO and Chair­man respec­tive­ly, with a fur­ther 10% owned by Sobra AS, a real estate com­pa­ny belong­ing to Find Gjede­bo, accord­ing to the Nor­we­gian cor­po­rate registry.

 

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, Hermitage’s lawyer who uncov­ered the US$230 mil­lion fraud and tes­ti­fied about the com­plic­i­ty of Russ­ian offi­cials in it, was false­ly arrest­ed, detained for 358 days with­out tri­al, tor­tured and killed in Russ­ian police cus­tody at the age of 37. The events of this case are described in the New-York Times best-sell­er “Red Notice”  by William Brow­der and in a series of cam­paign videos on Youtube chan­nel “Russ­ian Untouch­ables.” Recent­ly, thanks to Pana­ma Papers, pro­ceeds of US$230 mil­lion fraud uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky, were traced to Swiss account of a com­pa­ny owned by Sergei Roldug­in, a close friend of Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin.

 

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

 

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777

e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

billbrowder.com

twitter.com/Billbrowder

Oslo City Court Confirms to Sergei Magnitsky’s Family that Anti-Magnitsky Propaganda Film Will Not Be Shown

June 7, 2016

PRESS RELEASE

For Imme­di­ate distribution

 

Oslo City Court Con­firms to Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s Fam­i­ly that Anti-Mag­nit­sky Pro­pa­gan­da Film Will Not Be Shown

 

7 June 2016 – The wid­ow and moth­er of late Sergei Mag­nit­sky have been informed by the Oslo City Court that the Nor­we­gian film fes­ti­val, Kort­film­fes­ti­valen, has removed the anti-Mag­nit­sky film from its 9 – 10 June  2016 pro­gram, fol­low­ing the fam­i­ly’s appli­ca­tion for  court injunction.

 

“The film­mak­ers have act­ed neg­li­gent­ly when they decid­ed to put for­ward such defama­tion on a clear­ly defi­cient fac­tu­al basis.Kort­film­fes­ti­valen must be iden­ti­fied with the notion of neg­li­gence when it has not made the fac­tu­al inves­ti­ga­tion of the alle­ga­tion in the film,” said the injunc­tion appli­ca­tion filed by Carl Bore, lawyer for the Mag­nit­sky family.

 

The Oslo City Court accept­ed the injunc­tion appli­ca­tion on Mon­day, 6 June 2016, and set the oral hear­ing date for Wednes­day, 8 June 2016. How­ev­er, at a pre­lim­i­nary hear­ing today, 7 June 2016, the Kort­film­fes­ti­valen announced that they will not show the film by Andrei Nekrasov.

 

Judge Hen­ning Kris­tiansen signed the tran­script of the pro­ceed­ing, which con­firms that the fes­ti­val will not show the film in any version.

 

“Mag­nit­sky Act shall not be shown at the fes­ti­val, nei­ther in whole or in part, nor in any ver­sion. This also cov­ers oth­er ver­sions includ­ed in the cur­rent film project,” says the court pro­to­col signed by the judge.

 

“No pub­lic inter­est dic­tates spread­ing of an untrue and gross­ly defam­a­to­ry film of this nature. As pre­vi­ous­ly men­tioned, defama­tion in the film includes the “acquit­tal” of Russ­ian author­i­ties for gross cor­rup­tion and seri­ous human rights vio­la­tions in the Mag­nit­sky case. The pub­lic is not well served by dis­in­for­ma­tion,” said the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly in their injunc­tion application.

 

The Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly first wrote to the Kort­film­fes­ti­valen on Mon­day, 30 May 2016, ask­ing the fes­ti­val to remove the film from the pro­gram because of its false and defam­a­to­ry con­tent. The let­ter from the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly was sup­port­ed by numer­ous doc­u­ments and evi­dence demon­strat­ing the fal­si­ty of film’s alle­ga­tions. How­ev­er, Nor­we­gian Kort­film­fes­ti­valen refused to dis­as­so­ci­ate them­selves from the film, and main­tained the film in the pro­gram for 9 – 10 June 2016.

 

Because of the festival’s refusal, the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly had to apply to the Nor­we­gian court seek­ing an injunc­tion. The injunc­tion appli­ca­tion was filed on behalf of the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly and William Brow­der, leader of Mag­nit­sky jus­tice move­ment, with the Oslo City Court on Mon­day, 6 June 2016. The fes­ti­val only announced that it would with­draw the film from the pro­gram after they had been tak­en to court. How­ev­er, Kort­film­fes­ti­valen simul­ta­ne­ous­ly assert­ed on its web­site that it “con­tin­ues to sup­port Piraya Film and Nekrasov in their desire to fin­ish this film project,” appar­ent­ly being unmoved by the pain and dis­tress their actions have caused Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s wid­ow and mother.

 

Kort­film­fes­ti­valen is run with fund­ing from the Nor­we­gian state, Aust-Agder coun­ty and Grim­stad municipality.

 

Pre­vi­ous­ly, the anti-Mag­nit­sky film by Andrei Nekrasov was with­drawn from broad­cast by the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment, French TV sta­tion ARTE and Ger­man TV sta­tion ZDF.

 

The anti-Mag­nit­sky film was direct­ed by Andrei Nekrasov and pro­duced by a Nor­we­gian film com­pa­ny, Piraya Film AS.PirayaFilm AS is co-owned by Nor­we­gians Bjarte Mørn­er Tveit and Torstein Grude, who also serve as Piraya Film’s CEO and Chair­man respec­tive­ly, with a fur­ther 10% owned by Sobra AS, a real estate com­pa­ny belong­ing to Find Gjede­bo, accord­ing to the Nor­we­gian cor­po­rate registry.

 

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, Hermitage’s lawyer who uncov­ered the US$230 mil­lion fraud and tes­ti­fied about the com­plic­i­ty of Russ­ian offi­cials in it, was false­ly arrest­ed, detained for 358 days with­out tri­al, tor­tured and killed in Russ­ian police cus­tody at the age of 37. The events of this case are described in the New-York Times best-sell­er “Red Notice. How I Became Putin’s No 1 Ene­my” by William Brow­der, leader of the glob­al Mag­nit­sky jus­tice move­ment, and in a series of cam­paign videos on Youtube chan­nel “Russ­ian Untouch­ables.” Recent­ly, thanks to Pana­ma Papers, pro­ceeds of US$230 mil­lion fraud uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky, were traced to Swiss account of a com­pa­ny owned by Sergei Roldug­in, a close friend of Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin.

 

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

 

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777

e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

billbrowder.com

twitter.com/Billbrowder

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