UK Authorities Refused Russian Mutual Legal Assistance Request in Magnitsky Posthumous Prosecution Case

July 2, 2012

UK Author­i­ties Refused Russ­ian Mutu­al Legal Assis­tance Request in Mag­nit­sky Posthu­mous Pros­e­cu­tion Case

2 July 2012 – The Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry report­ed this morn­ing that the UK author­i­ties had refused their mutu­al legal assis­tance request in the case of posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion of late whis­tle-blow­ing lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky and in-absen­tia pros­e­cu­tion of his client William Brow­der who is cam­paign­ing for tar­get­ed visa and finan­cial sanc­tions on the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials involved in the false arrest, tor­ture and in-cus­tody mur­der of Magnitsky. 

In spite of the refusal from the UK to coop­er­ate in this high-pro­file mat­ter, the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry stat­ed their inten­tion to move the first-in-his­to­ry posthu­mous case to tri­al, say­ing they see no “legal” obsta­cle to it.

The UK refusal to exe­cute the Russia’s mutu­al legal assis­tance request was issued by the UK State Sec­re­tary on nation­al secu­ri­ty grounds.

The Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry announced the UK refusal of mutu­al legal assis­tance to Rus­sia on the offi­cial web­site this morn­ing, saying: 

“UK com­pe­tent bod­ies replied to us: The UK can not pro­vide the request­ed legal assis­tance, because the State Sec­re­tary con­sid­ers that the exe­cu­tion of the request is like­ly to prej­u­dice the sov­er­eign­ty, secu­ri­ty, pub­lic order or oth­er essen­tial inter­ests of the UK.” (http://www.mvd.ru/news/show_109133/)

The refusal by the UK of Russia’s legal assis­tance request was issued under the 1959 Euro­pean Con­ven­tion on Mutu­al Legal Assis­tance in Crim­i­nal Mat­ters (http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/html/030.htm), to which both the UK and Rus­sia are par­ties, which pro­vides for the refusal of requests if they are like­ly to prej­u­dice secu­ri­ty, pub­lic order and essen­tial nation­al interests.

The Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry fur­ther said in their offi­cial announcement:

“Nev­er­the­less, in accor­dance with Russ­ian judi­cial norms, this fact [the refusal of mutu­al legal assis­tance] does not pose an obsta­cle for send­ing the case to court, because Russ­ian inves­ti­ga­tors have fol­lowed juridi­cal for­mal­i­ties in full.” (http://www.mvd.ru/news/show_109133/)

The posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion of Sergei Mag­nit­sky was launched on orders from Vik­tor Grin, Russia’s Deputy Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor, on 30 July 2011, three days after the U.S. State Depart­ment announced visa bans on Russ­ian offi­cials asso­ci­at­ed with Magnitsky’s death, which include Vik­tor Grin him­self. Pros­e­cu­tor Grin is No 33 on the U.S. Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion list of those involved in per­se­cu­tion of Mag­nit­sky and cor­rup­tion he had uncovered. 

In spite of 30 com­plaints from the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly and calls from Amnesty Inter­na­tion­al and mem­bers of the Coun­cil of Europe and the Euro­pean Union, Russ­ian courts and gov­ern­ment bod­ies have the posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion of Sergei Magnitsky. 

Con­clu­sions from the Russ­ian Human Rights Coun­cil of gross vio­la­tions of human rights and breach­es of the Euro­pean Human Rights Con­ven­tion in the Mag­nit­sky case have been reject­ed by the Russ­ian Gen­er­al Prosecutor’s Office. Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry Offi­cers involved in the false arrest, tor­ture and death of Mr Mag­nit­sky have been pro­mot­ed and dec­o­rat­ed with state honours.

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion please contact:

Her­mitage Capital 

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