Sergei Magnitsky Justice Campaigners Demand Transparent Investigation into the Suspicious Death in Moscow of Russian Actor and Civil Rights Activist Alexei Devotchenko

November 6, 2014

Sergei Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Cam­paign­ers Demand Trans­par­ent Inves­ti­ga­tion into the Sus­pi­cious Death in Moscow of Russ­ian Actor and Civ­il Rights Activist Alex­ei Devotchenko

6 Novem­ber 2014 — Cam­paign­ers for Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky demand a trans­par­ent inves­ti­ga­tion into yes­ter­day’s sus­pi­cious death in Moscow of Russ­ian actor, civ­il activist, and a friend of the Mag­nit­sky cam­paign Alex­ei Devotchenko.

Alex­ei Devotchenko was one of the few free voic­es left in Rus­sia who had not been killed, arrest­ed or forced into exile because of his way of thinking.

He was brave­ly speak­ing out against the polit­i­cal repres­sion, klep­toc­ra­cy and human rights vio­la­tions endorsed by Pres­i­dent Putin’s regime. Three years ago, in an act of protest against cor­rup­tion and polit­i­cal cen­sor­ship, Alex­ei Devotchenko returned the state hon­ours which had been per­son­al­ly award­ed to him by Pres­i­dent Putin in recog­ni­tion of his accom­plish­ments as an out­stand­ing actor. He explained it in an inter­view to Novy Region 2: “I am com­plete­ly fed up with this tzardom-state­dom. With its lies, cov­er-ups, state-sanc­tioned rob­bery, bribery and oth­er virtues…” (http://www.newsinfo.ru/news/2011 – 11-21/de­votchenko/766105/). Short­ly after­wards, he was attacked on a Moscow under­ground. Details of this inci­dent were report­ed on his facebook.
Last year, Alex­ei Devotchenko was a promi­nent fig­ure at the memo­r­i­al cer­e­mo­ny to mark the life and death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, held at the Sakharov cen­tre. Alex­ei Devotchenko read poems by Russ­ian poet and Nobel Prize lau­re­ate Joseph Brod­sky who was expelled from the Sovi­et Union in 1972. After­wards, he spoke about the dif­fi­cult choic­es that every free-think­ing Russ­ian has to make, and whether it’s safe for him and his fam­i­ly to stay in the coun­try giv­en the polit­i­cal repres­sions and blood­shed that could come of it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68UZDPLwtDY].
Yes­ter­day, Alex­ei Devotchenko was found dead with signs of vio­lence in a pool of blood near his apart­ment in Moscow. Despite ear­ly indi­ca­tions of a sus­pi­cious death, this morn­ing a ‘source’ in the Russ­ian law enforce­ment stat­ed that mur­der was exclud­ed, that the actor was a “drunk,” that the bruis­es were caused by glass fur­ni­ture in his apart­ment, and that a heart attack is a pos­si­ble expla­na­tion for his death (http://www.rg.ru/2014/11/06/devotchenko-site.html; http://www.interfax.ru/culture/405635).

‘We mourn the death of a coura­geous Russ­ian patri­ot Alex­ei Devotchenko. We believe that the Russ­ian pub­lic deserves to know what real­ly hap­pened. We are aware of the extent of cov­er up that is pos­si­ble. As we know from expe­ri­ence, it would not be the first time in Rus­sia that mur­der was cov­ered up by a “heart attack” and “drunk­en­ness.” We demand that the inves­ti­ga­tion of Alex­ei Devotchenko’s death is con­duct­ed open­ly and trans­par­ent­ly,” said a Sergei Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice cam­paign representative.

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Campaign
+44 2074401777
info@lawandorderinrussia.org
lawandorderinRussia.org

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