The Russian Investigative Committee is Forced by Foreign Visa Sanctions to Indict 2 out of 60 Officials on the Magnitsky List

November 1, 2011

Press Release
For Imme­di­ate Distribution

The Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee is Forced by For­eign Visa Sanc­tions to Indict 2 out of 60 Offi­cials on the Mag­nit­sky List

Novem­ber 1, 2011 – Today, the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee announced that it had “com­plet­ed” the inves­ti­ga­tion into the death in cus­tody of 37-year old anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, by indict­ing two med­ical offi­cials of the Butyr­ka deten­tion cen­ter in Moscow. 

The Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee said they had no oth­er sus­pects but “in case any oth­er per­sons involved in caus­ing the death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky were to be iden­ti­fied, they would also be held crim­i­nal­ly liable.”

“Today the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee has charged 2 out of 60 offi­cials on the US Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion list of Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials involved in the multi­bil­lion-dol­lar cor­rup­tion uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky, and his sub­se­quent arrest, tor­ture and death in cus­tody. The names of the remain­ing 58 offi­cials are wide­ly known, except as it turns out, for the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

“After two years of inves­ti­ga­tion, Russ­ian author­i­ties are bring­ing charges against the two low­est-lev­el offi­cials out of all those respon­si­ble for this unprece­dent­ed crime. These charges are high­ly ques­tion­able as they allege fail­ure to diag­nose dis­eases (dia­betes and hepati­tis), despite there being no record that Sergei suf­fered from these ailem­nts dur­ing his life,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative. 

“In the mean­time, the Russ­ian author­i­ties con­tin­ue to deprive the victim’s fam­i­ly of access to his per­son­al records and med­ical archive, and have denied the family’s repeat­ed requests for an inde­pen­dent med­ical study into the cause of death,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative. 

“The Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee is charg­ing two Butyr­ka med­ical offi­cials with neg­li­gence, and unin­ten­tion­al care­less­ness, despite the over­whelm­ing evi­dence that Sergei Mag­nit­sky had been deprived of med­ical care in cus­tody delib­er­ate­ly, and inhu­mane­ly,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative. 

“The Russ­ian author­i­ties con­tin­ue to ignore the find­ings of the Pres­i­dent Medvede­v’s Human Rights Coun­cil. The author­i­ties have failed to launch an inves­ti­ga­tion into who and why fab­ri­cat­ed the case against Mag­nit­sky and who orga­nized his tor­ture in cus­tody,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative. 

Last April, the U.S. Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion pub­lished a list of 60 Russ­ian offi­cials from the Inte­ri­or Min­istry, Fed­er­al Secu­ri­ty Ser­vice, Pros­e­cu­tor Office, Tax Ser­vice, court sys­tem and the penal sys­tem shown by doc­u­men­tary evi­dence to be involved in the embez­zle­ment of $230 mil­lion of pub­lic funds and the repres­sion of Sergei Mag­nit­sky who blew the whis­tle on this theft. 

In July this year, the Russ­ian President’s Human Rights Coun­cil found that Sergei Mag­nit­sky was arrest­ed and detained on false charges by offi­cers with con­flict of inter­est, in breach of both the Russ­ian law and the Euro­pean Human Rights Con­ven­tion. The Human Rights Coun­cil also not­ed that there was a wide-spread resis­tance to inves­ti­gate the crimes com­mit­ted against Mag­nit­sky and to pros­e­cute offi­cials com­plic­it in the mas­sive cor­rup­tion Mag­nit­sky had exposed. Four months since the pub­li­ca­tion of the Council’s con­clu­sions, the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee still has failed to launch an inves­ti­ga­tion into the crimes not­ed by the Coun­cil or charge any of the offi­cials named in the Council’s report. 

This Sep­tem­ber, Sergei Magnitsky’s moth­er filed a peti­tion with the Russ­ian State Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee sub­mit­ting new evi­dence that Sergei Mag­nit­sky had been delib­er­ate­ly tor­tured and then mur­dered in cus­tody. Mrs Magnitskaya’s report named high-rank­ing offi­cials respon­si­ble for Magnitsky’s wrong­ful arrest and abuse, includ­ing the Russ­ian Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor and 19 judges, and called for their imme­di­ate pros­e­cu­tion. None of the offi­cials named in the peti­tion from the Magnitsky’s moth­er have been charged.

“The intro­duc­tion of visa and eco­nom­ic sanc­tions in rela­tion to Russ­ian offi­cials in the Mag­nit­sky case has now forced Russ­ian author­i­ties to go after the low-lev­el execu­tors, how­ev­er, there is no jus­tice until all of those involved in the crime against Mag­nit­sky are brought to an open tri­al,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

“The charges must be brought against all those who fab­ri­cat­ed a crim­i­nal case against Sergei Mag­nit­sky, who orga­nized his ille­gal arrest, fal­si­fied evi­dence to hold him in cus­tody, who cre­at­ed his tor­tur­ous con­di­tions, moved him from cell to cell, in the worst con­di­tions, extend­ed his cus­tody, who in the last hours of his life instead of treat­ing him, beat him with rub­ber batons, those who were involved in embez­zling bil­lions of rubles of pub­lic funds and who had a direct inter­est in silenc­ing Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a lawyer who was inves­ti­gat­ing the theft,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion please contact:

Her­mitage Capital
Tel: +44 207 440 17 77
Email: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
Web­site: http://lawandorderinrussia.org

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