September 5, 2016

PRESS RELEASE

For Imme­di­ate distribution

UK Judge Sen­tences ex Russ­ian Police Offi­cer in Mag­nit­sky Case to 3 Months in Prison for Con­tempt of Court

 

5 Sep­tem­ber 2016 – A UK High Court Judge, the Hon­ourable Mr Jus­tice Phillips has sen­tenced ex Russ­ian police offi­cer Pavel Kar­pov to three months in prison for con­tempt of court.

 

The British court found Pavel Kar­pov, a 39-year old ex Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cer, in con­tempt of court for fail­ing to appear before the court to answer ques­tions and pro­vide infor­ma­tion about his assets in a £660,000 ($877,800) judg­ment against him for costs ordered by the court in his failed libel action against Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment, Bill Brow­der and Jami­son Fire­stone in rela­tion to the Mag­nit­sky case.

 

Jus­tice Phillips con­clud­ed Kar­pov “has been guilty of con­tempt of court by dis­obey­ing the order of Mas­ter East­man” and Kar­pov should be “com­mit­ted to Her Majesty’s Prison for a peri­od of 3 months.”

 

“Pavel Kar­pov was one of the main fig­ures in the fraud that Sergei Mag­nit­sky uncov­ered. We are com­mit­ted to con­tin­ue seek­ing jus­tice through all legal means,” said William Brow­der, CEO of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment and leader of the glob­al Mag­nit­sky jus­tice movement.

 

The UK con­tempt of court case against Pavel Kar­pov stems from Karpov’s non-pay­ment of costs of a UK libel action that Kar­pov him­self had ini­ti­at­ed four years ago in the UK High Court.

 

Pavel Karpov’s 2012 UK libel suit was a land­mark case of for­eign libel tourism. One year after it was filed, in Octo­ber 2013, the UK High Court threw it out as abuse of court process and/or juris­dic­tion. The UK High Court ordered Pavel Kar­pov to pay Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment over £850,000 ($1,130,500) in costs for the libel pro­ceed­ings. Over £660,000 ($877,800) of that amount remains unpaid by Pavel Karpov.

 

In July 2016, Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment sought the court’s assis­tance to recov­er the debt from Pavel Kar­pov. Kar­pov failed to appear in court and, after sev­er­al notices, the court found him in contempt.

 

The Hon­ourable Mr Jus­tice Phillips sus­pend­ed the Com­mit­tal Order to the 1^st Decem­ber 2016. If Kar­pov fails to appear before the Court on 1 Decem­ber 2016 then an arrest war­rant will be issued for him .

 

For­mer Russ­ian police offi­cer Pavel Kar­pov had an annu­al salary of less than £10,000, yet was able to hire a top UK law firm, Olswang, to rep­re­sent him in his  failed libel action.

 

On 12 April 2013, the US Trea­sury added Pavel Kar­pov to the finan­cial sanc­tions list under the Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act of 2012 for his role in the Mag­nit­sky case.

 

On 2 April 2014, the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment includ­ed Pavel Kar­pov on its list of indi­vid­u­als to be sanc­tioned based on their role in the Mag­nit­sky case.

 

Sergei Mag­nit­sky was Hermitage’s lawyer who uncov­ered the US$230 mil­lion fraud and tes­ti­fied about the com­plic­i­ty of Russ­ian offi­cials in it. He 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 emblem­at­ic of cor­rup­tion and human rights abuse in Putin’s Rus­sia 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

 

 

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