Moscow Bar Association Rejects Order from the Russian Interior Ministry to Appoint Lawyers to the Magnitsky Family Against Their Will

January 27, 2012

The Moscow City Bar Asso­ci­a­tion has sent a let­ter to Inte­ri­or Min­istry Inves­ti­ga­tor Boris Kibis stat­ing that his order to appoint a state lawyer to rep­re­sent Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly is in breach of the Russ­ian law. The let­ter states that Russ­ian law does not allow state bod­ies to assign coun­sel after a defendant’s death.

“Arti­cle 51 of the Russ­ian Crim­i­nal Pro­ce­dur­al Code does not allow the state to appoint coun­sel to the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of a deceased defen­dant in a crim­i­nal case,” said Ms Zhiv­ina, Chair­woman of the Moscow City Bar Asso­ci­a­tion in a let­ter sent to inves­ti­ga­tor Kibis.

Mrs Zhiv­ina also states that the inves­ti­ga­tor has over­stepped his author­i­ty by appoint­ing a par­tic­u­lar lawyer to the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly against their will. Read more

State Persecution of Magnitsky Family Continues: Interior Ministry Removes Family Lawyer and Appoints State Lawyer Against Their Will

January 24, 2012

The moth­er of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, had her fam­i­ly lawyer, Niko­lai Gorokhov, forcibly removed from his role by the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry. She has been assigned a new lawyer appoint­ed by state inves­ti­ga­tors against her will. Sergei Magnitsky’s moth­er has asked all Russ­ian lawyers not to col­lab­o­rate with the state inves­ti­ga­tors respon­si­ble for the tor­ture and mur­der of her son. 

In a writ­ten appeal filed with, Hen­ri Reznik, the Pres­i­dent of the Moscow Bar Asso­ci­a­tion against the forced removal of her lawyer by the Inte­ri­or Min­istry, Natalia Mag­nit­skaya said:

“I have engaged my lawyer Niko­lai Gorokhov to pro­vide me with qual­i­fied legal coun­sel and I have full con­fi­dence in his advice. I cat­e­gor­i­cal­ly refuse to accept ser­vices of unknown lawyers appoint­ed by inves­ti­ga­tors with con­flict of inter­est and who have shown their par­tial­i­ty and are act­ing against the law and con­science.” Read more

Russian Interior Ministry Threatens Magnitsky Family Lawyer

January 17, 2012

17 Jan­u­ary 2012 – Today, Natalya Mag­nit­skaya, the moth­er of anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky received her fifth sum­mons from the Inte­ri­or Min­istry to appear as a wit­ness in the crim­i­nal case opened up against her dead son. The sum­mons is part of the ongo­ing pres­sure against the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly to cease their calls for jus­tice and pros­e­cu­tions of Russ­ian offi­cials involved in Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s tor­ture and murder. 

“I refuse to par­tic­i­pate in the ille­gal inves­tiga­tive actions in a crim­i­nal case under which my son was repressed using the fab­ri­cat­ed evi­dence,” said Sergei Magnitsky’s moth­er in a state­ment sent yes­ter­day to the Russ­ian Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Yuri Chaika.

Niko­lai Gorokhov, the lawyer for the fam­i­ly, has appealed to the Russ­ian Pres­i­den­t’s Human Rights Coun­cil for pro­tec­tion from this Inte­ri­or Min­istry per­se­cu­tion. The Pres­i­den­t’s Human Rights Coun­cil con­clud­ed last July that the case against Mag­nit­sky had been fab­ri­cat­ed and his arrest was in breach of the Euro­pean Human Rights Con­ven­tion. Read more

British MP Demands that Magnitsky Killers Be Banned From Entering the UK and Their Names Submitted to Interpol and Europol

January 12, 2012

On Wednes­day the 11^th Jan­u­ary, the Rt Hon Denis Mac­Shane MP, for­mer Min­is­ter for Europe, ini­ti­at­ed a Par­lia­men­tary Adjourn­ment Debate in the British Par­lia­ment enti­tled, ‘Human Rights and case of Sergei Mag­nit­sky’. Mr Mac­Shane demand­ed that the British Gov­ern­ment impose visa sanc­tions against the Russ­ian offi­cials who were respon­si­ble for the false arrest, tor­ture and death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky and the $230 mil­lion tax fraud that Mag­nit­sky uncovered.

Mr Mac­Shane said: “We could do more for stop­ping human rights atroc­i­ties by selec­tive­ly ban­ning a few cor­rupt Russ­ian offi­cials from com­ing into our coun­try, than all the mil­lions of pounds wast­ed by the For­eign Office on use­less diplo­mat­ic efforts which are sim­ply ignored and scoffed at by the Russians.”

In a damn­ing con­dem­na­tion of the impuni­ty in Rus­sia, Mr Mac­Shane laid out in detail the facts of the Mag­nit­sky case in front of the British Par­lia­ment and called on the British Gov­ern­ment to imple­ment visa sanc­tions on a num­ber of offi­cials named in his tes­ti­mo­ny. He point­ed to actions that have been tak­en in the US Con­gress and demand­ed that the same be done in the UK. Read more

Sergei Magnitsky’s Mother is Summoned for Questioning Against Her Will by Russian Interior Ministry for the Second Time on December 28^th

December 28, 2011

The Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry has appoint­ed a new inves­ti­ga­tor to inter­ro­gate Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s rel­a­tives in the unprece­dent­ed case opened against a man who has been dead for two years. Sev­er­al appeals by Mag­nit­sky’s rel­a­tives to stop the posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion have been denied by the Russ­ian author­i­ties. Under the case, the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry has been pres­sur­ing Mag­nit­sky’s rel­a­tives to give up their right to seek jus­tice for Mag­nit­sky’s death in cus­tody in exchange for ceas­ing their posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion against him.

Last week Mag­nit­sky’s moth­er received a telegram from inves­ti­ga­tor Boris Kibis of the Inte­ri­or Min­istry’s Depart­ment for the Cen­tral Fed­er­al Dis­trict, sum­mon­ing her for ques­tion­ing today, Decem­ber 28 to 15 – 00. As an alter­na­tive to the con­tin­u­ing pros­e­cu­tion of her son, inves­ti­ga­tor Kibis sug­gest­ed that Mag­nit­sky’s moth­er waive her right to reha­bil­i­tate her son.

“I refuse to know­ing­ly par­tic­i­pate in ille­gal inves­tiga­tive actions in a crim­i­nal case, renewed in respect of my son, because I do not trust the inves­ti­ga­tor who does not obey the law and does not respect the rights of cit­i­zens. I ask again for pro­tec­tion for me and all oth­er rel­a­tives of Sergei from this per­se­cu­tion”, said Natalia Mag­nit­skaya in a state­ment addressed to the chief of the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry’s Depart­ment for Cen­tral Fed­er­al Dis­trict Mr Solovy­ov. Read more

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