Russian Government Extends the Case Investigation into Sergei Magnitsky’s Death, with No New Suspects, while His Unprecedented Posthumous Prosecution Carries On

April 25, 2012

The Russ­ian gov­ern­ment has extend­ed, for the 12^th time, the inves­ti­ga­tion into the death in jail of whis­tle-blow­ing lawyer, Sergei Mag­nit­sky. The pre­vi­ous dead­line, which expired today has now been extend­ed to 24 July 2012: this, despite no new sus­pects being iden­ti­fied and no new charges brought. The inves­ti­ga­tion remains under the con­trol of the same Russ­ian offi­cials who are con­flict­ed and com­pro­mised by their known roles in Magnitsky’s per­se­cu­tion and the con­ceal­ment of the cor­rup­tion he had uncov­ered. The Russ­ian gov­ern­ment claims that the death of Mag­nit­sky, a healthy 37-year old pri­or to his deten­tion, where he was kept for 358 days with­out tri­al in inhu­mane con­di­tions, was “an inevitable event for which no one was to blame”. Read more

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Takes Steps Towards Launching an International Investigation into the Murder of Sergei Magnitsky

April 25, 2012

Yes­ter­day, at the Spring Ses­sion of the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe (PACE) meet­ing in Stras­bourg, 69 mem­bers of Par­lia­ment from 29 coun­tries signed a motion enti­tled: “Refus­ing impuni­ty for the killers of Sergei Mag­nit­sky”. The motion calls for a ‘ded­i­cat­ed report’ to inves­ti­gate the death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky and return the find­ings to the Assem­bly at a lat­er date this year. Read more

European Commission Calls for Magnitsky’s Torturers to Be Brought to Justice

April 20, 2012

At a mid­day Euro­pean Com­mis­sion brief­ing today, the spokesman for the Euro­pean Jus­tice Com­mis­sion­er Cecil­ia Malm­strom made a strong state­ment call­ing upon the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion to bring to jus­tice the tor­tur­ers of late whis­tle-blow­ing lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky and to stop his posthu­mous prosecution. 

Com­mis­sion­er Malmstrom’s spokesper­son said:

“You know the case of Mr Mag­nit­sky, the lawyer who was killed. This is an issue which has been raised by Com­mis­sion­er Malm­strom on a num­ber of occa­sions and every time that she has met the Russ­ian author­i­ties and she has called on the Russ­ian author­i­ties to shed full light on this extreme­ly con­tro­ver­sial issue.” Read more

Heavy-Weight Sponsors Submit New Strengthened Magnitsky Bill to the U.S. House of Representatives

April 20, 2012

Tonight, a new strength­ened ver­sion of the Mag­nit­sky Bill was sub­mit­ted to the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives call­ing for asset freezes and visa bans on any­one involved in the per­se­cu­tion of late whis­tle-blow­ing lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment con­spir­a­cy he had uncov­ered and the sub­se­quent cov­er-up of these crimes. The Bill also impos­es sim­i­lar sanc­tions on oth­er gross human rights abusers.

“Sergei Mag­nit­sky was bru­tal­ly tor­tured and allowed to die in deten­tion because he had the courage to stand up to Russ­ian author­i­ties on behalf of the truth. This bill hon­ors his mem­o­ry by hold­ing account­able not only those indi­vid­u­als respon­si­ble for his abuse and death, but also oth­ers who have com­mit­ted gross human rights vio­la­tions. Enact­ing the bill would pow­er­ful­ly demon­strate that the pro­tec­tion of fun­da­men­tal rights and free­doms is a cor­ner­stone of U.S. for­eign pol­i­cy,” said Con­gress­man McGov­ern, Co-chair­man of the U.S. Con­gres­sion­al Tom Lan­tos Human Rights Com­mis­sion and the orig­i­nal spon­sor of the Bill in the pre­vi­ous Con­gress. Read more

Magnitsky’s Mother Identifies Gross Negligence in the Investigation of Her Son’s Death, Following the Acquittal of one of the Doctors

April 19, 2012

Fol­low­ing the recent acquit­tal of one of the two prison doc­tors charged in the death of Russ­ian whis­tle-blow­ing lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky in state cus­tody, his moth­er has filed a 39-page com­plaint out­lin­ing over 50 points of inves­tiga­tive neg­li­gence and irreg­u­lar­i­ties in the case mate­ri­als point­ing to the state cov­er-up of the actu­al cir­cum­stances of Mr Magnitsky’s arrest, ill-treat­ment and mur­der in cus­tody, as well the motives to kill him as an “incon­ve­nient” witness. 

“Inves­ti­ga­tors have cov­ered up the cru­el repres­sion of my son for his stance against cor­rupt offi­cials whom he had exposed act­ing as part of a crim­i­nal con­spir­a­cy through which they for many years have been steal­ing bil­lions of rubles from the Russ­ian bud­get,” said Magnitsky’s moth­er in her com­plaint filed with the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee. Read more

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