European Parliament Condemns Impunity in the Magnitsky Case and Creates Consequences for Those Involved in the Cover-Up

December 15, 2011

The Euro­pean Par­lia­ment has strong­ly con­demned the impuni­ty of Russ­ian offi­cials involved in the false arrest, tor­ture and mur­der of the Russ­ian anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky and has moved to cre­ate con­se­quences for the Russ­ian bureau­crats involved in the cover-up.

In a strong­ly-word­ed res­o­lu­tion adopt­ed yes­ter­day in advance of the EU-Rus­sia sum­mit, the Euro­pean par­lia­ment has vowed to impose EU-wide visa and asset freezes if the Russ­ian author­i­ties fail to pros­e­cute the offi­cials com­plic­it in Magnitsky’s death and extend these sanc­tions to those Russ­ian offi­cials involved in the on-going cov­er up in this case. 

“The Euro­pean Par­lia­ment calls in case of fur­ther inac­tion by the Russ­ian author­i­ties for the Coun­cil to take into con­sid­er­a­tion actions such as an EU-wide trav­el ban and a freeze on the finan­cial assets of those found guilty of the tor­ture and death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky as well as cov­er­ing up the case,” says the Res­o­lu­tion. Read more

US Senate Committee to Hold Hearing on Magnitsky Law and Russia Policy

December 14, 2011

In response to the dete­ri­o­rat­ing human rights sit­u­a­tion and par­lia­men­tary fraud in Rus­sia, the Sen­ate is mov­ing for­ward with the Sergei Mag­nit­sky bill. Today, the U.S. Senate’s Sub­com­mit­tee on Euro­pean Affairs will hold a hear­ing to dis­cuss U.S. pol­i­cy options towards Rus­sia, includ­ing the Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act which will leg­is­late visa and eco­nom­ic sanc­tions on human rights abusers in Russia. 

Today’s hear­ing will be presided by Sen­a­tor Jeanne Sha­heen, chair of the Sen­ate Sub­com­mit­tee and one of the co-spon­sors of the Sergei Mag­nit­sky bill.

David Kramer, pres­i­dent of Free­dom House and for­mer Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of State for Democ­ra­cy, Human Rights and Labor, who is one of the advo­cates of the Sergei Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion, will speak at the hearing.
“The point is to make clear to Russ­ian offi­cials that if you don’t mur­der jour­nal­ists, lawyers, and oppo­nents or engage in oth­er gross human rights abus­es, then you have noth­ing to fear from the bill,” said Mr Kramer. Read more

Hermitage Capital Publishes Explosive 75-Page Report Showing How Sergei Magnitsky Was Murdered in Russian Custody and the Subsequent Government Cover-Up

November 28, 2011

Today, Her­mitage Cap­i­tal released a 75-page report with new doc­u­men­tary evi­dence show­ing how Sergei Mag­nit­sky was mur­dered in Russ­ian police cus­tody and how the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment has con­sis­tent­ly lied in pub­lic about Sergei Magnitsky’s false arrest, tor­ture and death to cov­er up the crim­i­nal lia­bil­i­ty of the Russ­ian offi­cials involved. 

The report enti­tled “The Tor­ture and Mur­der of Sergei Mag­nit­sky and the Cov­er Up by the Russ­ian Gov­ern­ment” is the result of 1000 man hours of work con­duct­ed by a team of pro-bono lawyers, foren­sic inves­ti­ga­tors and Sergei Magnitsky’s col­leagues, who have reviewed Russ­ian court fil­ings, crim­i­nal case mate­ri­als and pub­lic state­ments by gov­ern­ment offi­cials in the Mag­nit­sky case. The report shows in more than 100 doc­u­ments, pho­tographs and media links how Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly tor­tured Sergei Mag­nit­sky in cus­tody, and how every sin­gle depart­ment of the Russ­ian law enforce­ment sys­tem has been involved in the cov­er-up of the crimes. Read more

Russian Investigator on the Cardin List Invited by President Medevedev to discuss the “Fight Against Corruption in Russia”

November 24, 2011

Yes­ter­day, on 23^rd of Novem­ber 2011, Lieu­tenant Colonel Niko­lai Budi­lo, who is num­ber 23 on the US Helsin­ki Commission’s list of 60 Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials who are banned entry into the Unit­ed States for their involve­ment in the Sergei Mag­nit­sky case, was invit­ed by Pres­i­dent Medvedev to dis­cuss the fight against cor­rup­tion in Russia.

The meet­ing, held at 14:00 yes­ter­day and Chaired by Pres­i­dent Medvedev, was held to “dis­cuss with man­age­ment and employ­ees of law enforce­ment agen­cies, the prospec­tive of leg­is­la­tion and law enforce­ment prac­tices in cas­es against cor­rup­tion”. The meet­ing includ­ed 24 mem­bers of Russ­ian law enforce­ment agen­cies, includ­ing; Min­is­ter of Inte­ri­or Rashid Nur­galiev, Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Yuri Chai­ka and Head of Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee Alexan­der Bas­trykin and Lt Col Niko­lai Budi­lo, Chief Inves­ti­ga­tor from the 1^st Divi­sion for inves­ti­ga­tions into orga­nized crime from the Inves­tiga­tive Depart­ment of Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Ministry.

Niko­lai Budi­lo was includ­ed in Sen­a­tor Cardin’s list for his involve­ment in the theft of $230 mil­lion of tax­es from the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment which was dis­cov­ered and report­ed by Sergei Mag­nit­sky. Budilo’s spe­cif­ic involve­ment includ­ed sub­mit­ting fal­si­fied doc­u­ments to the crim­i­nal case file which were used to exon­er­ate his col­leagues – offi­cers Artem Kuznetsov and Pavel Kar­pov, from any crim­i­nal lia­bil­i­ty for their ille­gal seizure of doc­u­ments used for arrang­ing the largest ille­gal tax refund in Russ­ian his­to­ry, in one day, on Christ­mas Eve 2007. 

Both Kuznetsov and Kar­pov were per­son­al­ly iden­ti­fied by the late Russ­ian, anti­cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, as major cul­prits in the bud­get fraud.

Accord­ing to the US Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion, Inves­ti­ga­tor Nick­o­lai Budi­lo, “Car­ried out the inves­ti­ga­tion into the repres­sive case against Her­mitage exec­u­tives and lawyers, which was opened in retal­i­a­tion for their whis­tle blow­ing on Inte­ri­or Min­istry cor­rup­tion. [They] reject­ed Her­mitage’s com­plaints with­out grounds.”
(http://www.csce.gov/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Files.Download&FileStore_id=1744 )

Accord­ing to a Her­mitage spokesman, “For Pres­i­dent Medvedev to invite an inves­ti­ga­tor from the Cardin list to talk about fight­ing cor­rup­tion is like invit­ing Pablo Esco­bar to talk about fight­ing the drug war. It makes a com­plete mock­ery of Pres­i­dent Medvedev’s fight against corruption.”

Russian Investigator on the Cardin List Invited by President Medevedev to discuss the “Fight Against Corruption in Russia”

November 24, 2011

Yes­ter­day, on 23^rd of Novem­ber 2011, Lieu­tenant Colonel Niko­lai Budi­lo, who is num­ber 23 on the US Helsin­ki Commission’s list of 60 Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials who are banned entry into the Unit­ed States for their involve­ment in the Sergei Mag­nit­sky case, was invit­ed by Pres­i­dent Medvedev to dis­cuss the fight against cor­rup­tion in Russia.

The meet­ing, held at 14:00 yes­ter­day and Chaired by Pres­i­dent Medvedev, was held to “dis­cuss with man­age­ment and employ­ees of law enforce­ment agen­cies, the prospec­tive of leg­is­la­tion and law enforce­ment prac­tices in cas­es against cor­rup­tion”. The meet­ing includ­ed 24 mem­bers of Russ­ian law enforce­ment agen­cies, includ­ing; Min­is­ter of Inte­ri­or Rashid Nur­galiev, Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Yuri Chai­ka and Head of Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee Alexan­der Bas­trykin and Lt Col Niko­lai Budi­lo, Chief Inves­ti­ga­tor from the 1^st Divi­sion for inves­ti­ga­tions into orga­nized crime from the Inves­tiga­tive Depart­ment of Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry. Read more

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