Cardin, Hastings Statement on Death of Anti-Corruption Lawyer in Russia

November 17, 2009

WASHINGTON— U.S. Sen­a­tor Ben­jamin L. Cardin (D‑MD), Chair­man of the Com­mis­sion on Secu­ri­ty and Coop­er­a­tion in Europe (U.S. Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion) and Co-Chair­man Con­gress­man Alcee L. Hast­ings (D‑FL) expressed con­cerns today about the state of the Russ­ian judi­cial sys­tem after learn­ing that anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky died Mon­day while being held in a pre-tri­al deten­tion facility.

“I am trou­bled to learn of the recent death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky,” Chair­man Cardin said. “Mag­nit­sky was incar­cer­at­ed on appar­ent­ly fab­ri­cat­ed charges designed to end his inquiries into one of the largest cas­es of offi­cial cor­rup­tion in mod­ern Russ­ian his­to­ry. His death, while in offi­cial cus­tody, rais­es seri­ous ques­tions about his treat­ment and over­all con­di­tions in Russ­ian jails.”

Mr. Mag­nit­sky, 37, was a father of two chil­dren and a high­ly regard­ed pro­fes­sion­al, who advised Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment and hun­dreds of U.S. and for­eign com­pa­nies active in the Russ­ian mar­ket. He had been held on tax eva­sion charges since Nov. 24.

Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment CEO Bill Brow­der tes­ti­fied before the Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion in June and said, “The sit­u­a­tion in Rus­sia is going from ‘bad’ back to ‘hor­ri­ble’ – and it will be more than just investors who lose out in this process.”

“Trag­i­cal­ly, it appears that Mr. Brow­der was cor­rect. On top of a mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar cor­rup­tion scheme and a legal night­mare for cor­po­ra­tions try­ing to do hon­est work, we now mourn the death of a young lawyer who was sim­ply try­ing to stand up to a bro­ken judi­cial sys­tem,” Co-Chair­man Hastings.

For video:
See the 10-minute Her­mitage video about the cor­rup­tion they faced here. Mr. Mag­nit­sky is specif­i­cal­ly men­tioned in the video at 4:18 and 9:30.

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The Com­mis­sion on Secu­ri­ty and Coop­er­a­tion in Europe, also known as the U.S. Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion, is an inde­pen­dent agency of the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment charged with mon­i­tor­ing com­pli­ance with the Helsin­ki Accords and advanc­ing com­pre­hen­sive secu­ri­ty through pro­mo­tion of human rights, democ­ra­cy, and eco­nom­ic, envi­ron­men­tal and mil­i­tary coop­er­a­tion in 56 coun­tries. The Com­mis­sion con­sists of nine mem­bers from the U.S. Sen­ate, nine from the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, and one mem­ber each from the Depart­ments of State, Defense, and Commerce.

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