Russian Government Extends the Case Investigation into Sergei Magnitsky’s Death, with No New Suspects, while His Unprecedented Posthumous Prosecution Carries On

April 25, 2012

The Russ­ian gov­ern­ment has extend­ed, for the 12^th time, the inves­ti­ga­tion into the death in jail of whis­tle-blow­ing lawyer, Sergei Mag­nit­sky. The pre­vi­ous dead­line, which expired today has now been extend­ed to 24 July 2012: this, despite no new sus­pects being iden­ti­fied and no new charges brought. The inves­ti­ga­tion remains under the con­trol of the same Russ­ian offi­cials who are con­flict­ed and com­pro­mised by their known roles in Magnitsky’s per­se­cu­tion and the con­ceal­ment of the cor­rup­tion he had uncov­ered. The Russ­ian gov­ern­ment claims that the death of Mag­nit­sky, a healthy 37-year old pri­or to his deten­tion, where he was kept for 358 days with­out tri­al in inhu­mane con­di­tions, was “an inevitable event for which no one was to blame”.

“The inves­ti­ga­tion into my son’s death can­not be viewed as impar­tial while it is con­trolled by the same Deputy Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor of Rus­sia, Vik­tor Grin, and his sub­or­di­nates who have cov­ered up the par­ties respon­si­ble for the $230 mil­lion theft exposed by my son and for his tor­ture in cus­tody, whilst fail­ing to pro­tect his rights as required by Arti­cle 51 of the Russ­ian Law on Deten­tion,” said Magnitsky’s moth­er in her com­plaint to the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Committee.

“It is clear that until the high-rank­ing law enforce­ment offi­cials respon­si­ble for Magnitsky’s per­se­cu­tion are brought to jus­tice, one can­not call what they are doing a real inves­ti­ga­tion,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal spokesperson.

The Russ­ian author­i­ties have refused to treat Magnitsky’s case as one of tor­ture and mur­der, which on con­vic­tion car­ry heavy sen­tences and are sub­ject to a 10 year statute of lim­i­ta­tions. Instead, 58 of the 60 Russ­ian offi­cials on the U.S. Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion list of those Russ­ian offi­cials involved in the tor­ture and death of Mr Mag­nit­sky, — and the $230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion he had uncov­ered, — remain free from lia­bil­i­ty. When, cer­tain West­ern gov­ern­ments start­ed to intro­duce visa and eco­nom­ic sanc­tions, the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment mere­ly charged two doc­tors with “inad­ver­tent neg­li­gence”, instead of wil­ful tor­ture. The case against one of these doc­tors was dis­charged under the applic­a­ble statute of lim­i­ta­tions, but not before the non-pro­vi­sion of med­ical care to Mr Mag­nit­sky had been qual­i­fied as “insignif­i­cant”.

Russ­ian author­i­ties are also con­tin­u­ing the posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion of Mr Mag­nit­sky, the first in Russ­ian legal his­to­ry. The author­i­ties claimed they had to pros­e­cute him after a Con­sti­tu­tion­al Court rul­ing last July stat­ing that fam­i­lies of deceased defen­dants may apply to reopen crim­i­nal cas­es with the aim of reha­bil­i­tat­ing the deceased. How­ev­er, with respect to Mag­nit­sky, the case was opened by the Prosecutor’s Office in the total absence of any appli­ca­tion by the fam­i­ly and in spite of the fact that the author­i­ties have stat­ed that they have “found no grounds for the reha­bil­i­ta­tion of Mr Mag­nit­sky”. Nonethe­less, the posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion was giv­en a green light by the Russ­ian courts. It is par­tic­u­lar­ly notable that Russ­ian author­i­ties are pur­su­ing Mr Mag­nit­sky posthu­mous­ly, sin­gling him out from approx­i­mate­ly a thou­sand oth­ers who died with­out tri­al in Russ­ian jails in the past two years.

“1,010 peo­ple died in Russ­ian pre-tri­al deten­tion cen­tres dur­ing 2009 ‑2011; and 108 peo­ple died in Moscow pre-tri­al deten­tion cen­tres dur­ing 2010 – 2011. Not a sin­gle per­son has been pros­e­cut­ed posthu­mous­ly, aside from Sergei Mag­nit­sky. This case against Sergei is pure retal­i­a­tion by Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials who were caught by Sergei Mag­nit­sky for their roles in the theft of Russ­ian bud­get mon­ey.” said a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Her­mitage Capital.

Last month, Magnitsky’s moth­er, Natalia Mag­nit­skaya, wrote to the Con­sti­tu­tion­al Court ask­ing for an opin­ion on the legal­i­ty of a posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion. The Con­sti­tu­tion­al Court replied that a case can be opened after a person’s death, but only for the pur­pose of reha­bil­i­tat­ing that per­son. Notwith­stand­ing, the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry and Pros­e­cu­tor General’s Office stat­ed that they will put Mr Mag­nit­sky, who has been dead for 2 ½ years, on tri­al “in any event.” 

Ear­li­er this month, Ms Mag­nit­skaya filed a com­plaint with the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee point­ing to its breach of Russia’s com­mit­ments under Arti­cles 7 and 12 of the UN Anti-tor­ture Con­ven­tion and P. 9 of the UN Prin­ci­ples on the Effec­tive Pre­ven­tion and Inves­ti­ga­tion of Extra-legal, Arbi­trary and Sum­ma­ry Exe­cu­tions, which call for “thor­ough, prompt and impar­tial” inves­ti­ga­tion, “ade­quate autop­sy”, and “col­lec­tion and analy­sis of all phys­i­cal and doc­u­men­tary evi­dence and state­ments from wit­ness­es.” Ms Magnitskaya’s com­plaint out­lined over 50 points of inves­tiga­tive neg­li­gence and irreg­u­lar­i­ties in the case files, point­ing to the state cov­er-up of the actu­al cir­cum­stances of Mr Magnitsky’s arrest, ill-treat­ment and mur­der in cus­tody, as well as a clear motive to kill him as an “incon­ve­nient” witness.

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