Global Reaction to the Impunity of Russian Officials Who Killed Sergei Magnitsky on the Two Year Anniversary of His Death

November 14, 2011

This week marks the sec­ond anniver­sary of death from tor­ture in Russ­ian police cus­tody of 37-year old whis­tle-blow­ing lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky. On 15 and 16 Novem­ber, politi­cians, activist cam­paign­ers and cul­tur­al lead­ers will spear­head a num­ber of impor­tant events in his mem­o­ry in the three world cap­i­tals – Wash­ing­ton, Lon­don and Berlin. 

In Wash­ing­ton, the US Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion will hold a brief­ing on Sergei Magnitsky’s mur­der and the impuni­ty of the Russ­ian offi­cials respon­si­ble for his death two years ago. The brief­ing is organ­ised by the US Helsin­ki Commission’s Chair­man, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Chris Smith (NJ-04) and Co-Chair­man Sen­a­tor Ben­jamin L. Cardin (MD). The US Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion has been cred­it­ed with doc­u­ment­ing and pub­li­cis­ing the list of 60 Russ­ian offi­cials involved in the $230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion exposed by Sergei Mag­nit­sky and his sub­se­quent repres­sion. As part of the brief­ing on the sec­ond anniver­sary of Magnitsky’s death, the US Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion will be host­ing a per­for­mance of “One Hour Eigh­teen,” a doc­u­men­tary play ded­i­cat­ed to Sergei Magnitsky’s final trag­ic moments. The event will take place on Wednes­day, Novem­ber 16, at 6:00 pm at 121 Can­non House Office Build­ing, Washington
(http://csce.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContentRecords.ViewDetail&ContentType=V&ContentRecord_id=127)

In Lon­don, “One Hour Eigh­teen” will be pre­miered on Wednes­day, Novem­ber 16, at 7:30 pm at Amnesty International’s Human Rights Action Cen­ter (17−25 New Inn Yard, Lon­don, EC2A 3EA) (http://www.amnesty.org.uk/events_details.asp?EventsID=1966). The play by cel­e­brat­ed Russ­ian play­wright Ele­na Grem­i­na rep­re­sents a the­atre-staged open tri­al of Magnitsky’s tor­tur­ers and killers. It describes the last one hour and 18 min­utes of Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s life based on doc­u­men­tary records. The play is unique because it delib­er­ate­ly does not dis­guise the names of real peo­ple involved. It has won rave reviews across Rus­sia, has toured the USA since May and will now be for the first time intro­duced by the Sput­nik the­atre for the British audience.

In Berlin, Ger­man Jus­tice Min­is­ter Sabine Leutheuss­er-Schnar­ren­berg­er, and Sergei Magnitsky’s moth­er, Natalia Mag­nit­skaya, will unveil a per­ma­nent exhi­bi­tion ded­i­cat­ed to Sergei Mag­nit­sky “Sergei Mag­nit­sky – Wit­ness for Jus­tice and Democ­ra­cy in Rus­sia,” on Tues­day, 15 Novem­ber, at 7 pm at the famous Check­point Char­lie Muse­um (Friedrich­strasse 43 – 45, Berlin) (http://www.mauermuseum.de/english/frame-index-mauer.html). The exhi­bi­tion will fea­ture Sergei Magnitsky’s diaries, let­ters and legal doc­u­ments as well as his per­son­al papers and will pro­vide a unique insight into his life as a cit­i­zen who dared to fight cor­rup­tion and gave his life for his principles. 

“On the day of Sergei Magnitsky’s death, our thoughts are with his fam­i­ly. It is an extreme­ly sad moment for all of us, but we must all be uplift­ed by the enor­mous out­pour­ing of emo­tion that his tragedy has evoked in peo­ple around the world and the impact he and his hero­ic lega­cy has already had for the many silent vic­tims who are suf­fer­ing the same fate as him,” said William Brow­der, CEO of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal, who is run­ning a glob­al cam­paign for jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a 37-year old anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer and out­side coun­sel for the Her­mitage Fund, was tor­tured to death in Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry cus­tody after he had tes­ti­fied about the involve­ment of Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials in the $230 mil­lion corruption. 

Russ­ian offi­cials who were respon­si­ble for his wrong­ful arrest, tor­ture and mur­der have been absolved from any respon­si­bil­i­ty, pro­mot­ed and dec­o­rat­ed with state honours.

Shocked by the impuni­ty of Russ­ian offi­cials in this high-pro­file case of gross human rights abuse, law­mak­ers in the US, Cana­da, UK, Ger­many, Hol­land, France and oth­er Euro­pean coun­tries are intro­duc­ing visa and eco­nom­ic sanc­tions on the com­plic­it offi­cials as well as those respon­si­ble for cov­er­ing them up.

“This is not an anti-Russ­ian cam­paign by any means. This is an anti-impuni­ty cam­paign to tar­get the mon­ey and trav­el priv­i­leges of cor­rupt offi­cials for the ben­e­fit of hon­est Rus­sians. We have huge sup­port among the Russ­ian peo­ple for what we are doing,” said William Brow­der com­ment­ing on the cam­paign to block for­eign trav­el of Russ­ian offi­cials in the Mag­nit­sky case.

Ger­man Launch of the “Sergei Mag­nit­sky – Wit­ness for Jus­tice and Democ­ra­cy in Rus­sia” Exhib­it at Check­point Char­lie Muse­um, 7 pm, 15 Novem­ber 2011
Berlin: http://www.mauermuseum.de/english/frame-index-mauer.html

British Pre­mier of One Hour Eigh­teen, 7:30 pm, 16 Novem­ber 2011
Lon­don: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/events_details.asp?EventsID=1966

US Helsin­ki Commission’s Brief­ing on Mag­nit­sky Mur­der and Stag­ing of One Hour Eigh­teen„ 6 pm, 16 Novem­ber 2011
Wash­ing­ton: http://csce.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContentRecords.ViewDetail&ContentType=V&ContentRecord_id=127

One Hour Eigh­teen Per­for­mances in Bal­ti­more, USA
 — Novem­ber 15, 2011 at 6pm: Bal­ti­more City Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege, Catonsville Cam­pus Call 410 – 704-ARTS (2787) (free and open to the public)
 — Feb­ru­ary 17 – 19, 2012: The­atre Project, 45 W. Pre­ston St, Bal­ti­more, MD

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