France Calls on Russia To Expand the List of Officials to be Prosecuted In Magnitsky Murder Case

November 22, 2011

French For­eign Min­is­ter Alain Juppe is pub­licly chal­leng­ing the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment on the impuni­ty of a num­ber of Russ­ian offi­cials who were impli­cat­ed in the false arrest, tor­ture and death of Sergei Magnitsky.

In a let­ter from Min­is­ter Juppe to Jack Lang, a deputy in the French Nation­al Assem­bly and for­mer Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and Edu­ca­tion, Min­is­ter ques­tioned why only two doc­tors have been charged by the Russ­ian author­i­ties in spite of the find­ings of the Russ­ian Human Rights Coun­cil which names offi­cials in the Inte­ri­or Min­istry, Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Office and judges as abet­ting Magnitsky’s rights violations.

“Legal pro­ceed­ings were ini­ti­at­ed against a cou­ple of offi­cials in the prison med­ical ser­vice. The report of the Russ­ian Human Rights Coun­cil released on 6 July 2011 evokes respon­si­bil­i­ties more wide­ly shared in the mis­treat­ment of Mr. Mag­nit­sky while in deten­tion,” said Alan Juppe.

Refut­ing the attempts of the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment to black­en Mr Magnitsky’s name with posthu­mous legal pro­ceed­ings against him, Min­is­ter Juppe paid trib­ute to Mr Magnitsky’s coura­geous fight with cor­rup­tion and for the rule of law.

“The cir­cum­stances of the death of Mr. Mag­nit­sky, who led a coura­geous fight against cor­rup­tion and arbi­trari­ness, are for us a mat­ter of great concern…Bilaterally and with our Euro­pean part­ners, France will work to pro­mote the rule of law in Rus­sia,” said Alan Juppe.

“The EU has expressed a strong con­cern for, and is keep­ing a vig­i­lant eye on, how this inves­ti­ga­tion and court pro­ceed­ings unfold. We hope that our Euro­pean mes­sage will help move this case along,” stat­ed Alan Juppe.

Last year, Sergei Mag­nit­sky was posthu­mous­ly award­ed the Integri­ty Award by Trans­paren­cy Inter­na­tion­al for his per­son­al stance against the Russ­ian corruption.

In Octo­ber this year, law­mak­ers from 29 coun­tries in Europe signed a Mag­nit­sky Dec­la­ra­tion call­ing upon Rus­sia to imme­di­ate­ly pros­e­cute killers of Sergei Magnitsky.

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