Diplomatic Representatives of Five European Countries Say Posthumous Trial of Sergei Magnitsky in Russia is “Unacceptable”

April 23, 2013

Diplo­mat­ic rep­re­sen­ta­tives of five Euro­pean coun­tries have expressed con­cern over the on-going posthu­mous tri­al of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, killed in Russ­ian police cus­tody three years ago, and the recent clo­sure of the inves­ti­ga­tion into his death in Rus­sia (http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/bestanden/documenten-en-publicaties/brieven/2013/03/18/brief-over-de-opstelling-van-rusland-in-de-zaak-magnitsky/brief-over-de-opstelling-van-rusland-in-de-zaak-magnitsky.pdf).

In a let­ter addressed to the Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al of the Coun­cil of Europe, five per­ma­nent rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the UK, Ger­many, Hol­land, Swe­den, and the Czech Repub­lic have asked for the Mag­nit­sky case to be raised with Rus­sia authorities.

“His posthu­mous tri­al, albeit recent­ly post­poned, is an unac­cept­able attempt to dam­age the rep­u­ta­tion of a man who is not able to defend him­self, and to cause harm to his fam­i­ly,” said Euro­pean diplomats.

In their let­ter, Matthew John­son for the UK, Julius Georg Luy for Ger­many, Ellen Berends for Hol­land, Carl Ehrenkro­na for Swe­den and Tomas Bocek for Czech, on behalf of min­is­ters of for­eign affairs, said that the fail­ure of the Russ­ian author­i­ties to secure jus­tice for Mr Mag­nit­sky “is being inter­pret­ed as sym­bol­ic of the fail­ings of Russia’s judi­cial system.” 

The let­ter was sent the day after the Russ­ian author­i­ties announced that they had closed the inves­ti­ga­tion into Mr Magnitsky’s death on the ground that “no crime” was identified.

The Euro­pean diplo­mats stressed that the Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary of the Coun­cil of Europe had already expressed to the Russ­ian author­i­ties the “con­cern at the absence of any mean­ing­ful progress towards secur­ing jus­tice for Mr Mag­nit­sky and his fam­i­ly, more than three years after his death in pre-tri­al detention.”

They have encour­aged Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Thor­b­jørn Jagland to “con­tin­ue to raise the case…to express the impor­tance of bring­ing this case to a thor­ough con­clu­sion, explain­ing that doing so would demon­strate a pos­i­tive sig­nal for the future of human rights and democ­ra­cy in Russia.”

The Coun­cil of Europe com­pris­es 47 coun­tries, includ­ing Rus­sia. Its seeks to devel­op com­mon and demo­c­ra­t­ic prin­ci­ples through­out Europe, based on the Euro­pean Con­ven­tion on Human Rights and oth­er ref­er­ence texts on the pro­tec­tion of individuals. 

Mr Thor­b­jørn Jagland is the for­mer Prime Min­is­ter and For­eign Min­is­ter of Nor­way, and the 13^th Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al of the Coun­cil of Europe, elect­ed to the post in 2009. 

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