Interpol has Re-opened the Browder Red Notice Case on the Back of Magnitsky’s Posthumous Trial

July 3, 2014

Inter­pol has Re-openedthe Brow­derRed Notice Case on the Back of Magnitsky’s Posthu­mous Tri­al

3 July 2014 – Doc­u­ments recent­ly received from Inter­pol show that the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment has suc­cess­ful­ly con­vinced Interpol’s Com­mis­sion for Con­trol of Files to re-open their con­sid­er­a­tion to issue an Inter­pol Red Notice for Bill Brow­der, by sub­mit­ting Mr Brow­der’s con­vic­tion in absen­tia in Rus­sia, where he was a co-defen­dant with the deceased Sergei Mag­nit­sky in the first ever posthu­mous tri­al in Russ­ian history.

Two pre­vi­ous Russ­ian attempts to get a Red Notice issued for Mr Brow­der failed because Inter­pol deemed those attempts were polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed and vio­lat­ed Inter­pol’s con­sti­tu­tion. Short­ly after Inter­pol’s first rejec­tion of Rus­si­a’s request for Brow­der, Inter­pol’s Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary wrote an edi­to­r­i­al for the Dai­ly Tele­graph news­pa­per, cit­ing Mr Brow­der’s case as the exam­ple for why reforms are not need­ed at Inter­pol (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10082582/Interpol-makes-the-world-a-safer-place.html).

Strange­ly, Inter­pol has now decid­ed to reopen the case based onthe Mag­nit­sky posthu­mous tri­al. Interpol’s Com­mis­sion for the Con­trol of Interpol’s Files said that it plans to re-exam­ine the Russ­ian sub­mis­sion in rela­tion to Mr Brow­der at its next ses­sion in Octo­ber 2014.

“It would be a true sig­nal of the need for reform of Inter­pol if a Red Notice were issued on the basis of the first posthu­mous tri­al in Europe since Pope For­mo­sus in 897,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

In July 2013, Sergei Mag­nit­sky was con­vict­ed of tax eva­sion three years after he was mur­dered in Russ­ian state cus­tody, in the first ever posthu­mous tri­al in Russ­ian his­to­ry. Bill Brow­der was con­vict­ed as his co-defen­dant in the sec­ond ever tri­al in absen­tia against a West­ern­er. The tri­al was deemed to be polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed and ille­git­i­mate by the Coun­cil of Europe, the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment and numer­ous inter­na­tion­al human rights organisations.

The con­vic­tions have since been upheld by the Moscow City court in Jan­u­ary this year, in the absence of lawyers for Mr Brow­der and Mr Mag­nit­sky. Instead, they were rep­re­sent­ed by unknown lawyers appoint­ed by the Russ­ian government.

In addi­tion to pre­sent­ing Inter­pol with the con­vic­tions from that tri­al as “new evi­dence,” the Russ­ian author­i­ties pre­sent­ed a “fresh” arrest war­rant for Mr Brow­der, issued in March this year on the basis of the posthu­mous tri­al. The arrest war­rant was signed by Moscow judge Ele­na Stashina, who is sanc­tioned by the U.S. Gov­ern­ment for her role in the false deten­tion of Sergei Mag­nit­sky. Four days before Sergei Mag­nit­sky was mur­dered in police cus­tody, Judge Stashina pro­longed his deten­tion and denied Magnitsky’s med­ical care requests.

Judge Igor Alisov, who issued the posthu­mous con­vic­tion, was also placed on the U.S. Government’s sanc­tions list under the ‘U.S. Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act,’ for his role in con­ceal­ing the lia­bil­i­ty of offi­cials involved in Sergei Magnitsky’s death.

The doc­u­ments used in the posthu­mous tri­al were fab­ri­cat­ed by Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers, includ­ing offi­cers Artem Kuznetsov and Oleg Silchenko, also involved in Sergei Magnitsky’s false arrest and deten­tion, and who are also sanc­tioned by the U.S. Gov­ern­ment, which pro­hibits U.S. per­sons from any deal­ings with them.

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