Independent Investigation Reveals the Role of Senior Russian Police and Prison Officials in Sergei Magnitsky’s Torture and New Evidence of His Murder in Custody

November 17, 2011

Zoya Sve­to­va, an inde­pen­dent reporter for the Russ­ian mag­a­zine, The New Times, has pub­lished results of her new inves­ti­ga­tion into the tor­ture and death of Her­mitage Fund lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky two years ago in Russ­ian gov­ern­ment cus­tody (http://www.newtimes.ru/articles/detail/46260). The new find­ings, based on the doc­u­men­tary evi­dence, reveal that Russia’s most senior police and prison offi­cials were involved in cre­at­ing tor­tur­ous con­di­tions for Mag­nit­sky in deten­tion in order to force him to retract his tes­ti­mo­ny about the $230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion he had uncov­ered. The new inves­ti­ga­tion also doc­u­ments that Magnitsky’s death was not sim­ply a result of neg­li­gence, but that he was mur­dered in police custody.

Zoya Sve­to­va goes on to unrav­el the evi­dence of how Sergei Mag­nit­sky had been sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly tor­tured before he was mur­dered and who was respon­si­ble. Read more

Global Reaction to the Impunity of Russian Officials Who Killed Sergei Magnitsky on the Two Year Anniversary of His Death

November 14, 2011

This week marks the sec­ond anniver­sary of death from tor­ture in Russ­ian police cus­tody of 37-year old whis­tle-blow­ing lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky. On 15 and 16 Novem­ber, politi­cians, activist cam­paign­ers and cul­tur­al lead­ers will spear­head a num­ber of impor­tant events in his mem­o­ry in the three world cap­i­tals – Wash­ing­ton, Lon­don and Berlin. 

In Wash­ing­ton, the US Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion will hold a brief­ing on Sergei Magnitsky’s mur­der and the impuni­ty of the Russ­ian offi­cials respon­si­ble for his death two years ago. The brief­ing is organ­ised by the US Helsin­ki Commission’s Chair­man, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Chris Smith (NJ-04) and Co-Chair­man Sen­a­tor Ben­jamin L. Cardin (MD). The US Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion has been cred­it­ed with doc­u­ment­ing and pub­li­cis­ing the list of 60 Russ­ian offi­cials involved in the $230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion exposed by Sergei Mag­nit­sky and his sub­se­quent repres­sion. As part of the brief­ing on the sec­ond anniver­sary of Magnitsky’s death, the US Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion will be host­ing a per­for­mance of “One Hour Eigh­teen,” a doc­u­men­tary play ded­i­cat­ed to Sergei Magnitsky’s final trag­ic moments. The event will take place on Wednes­day, Novem­ber 16, at 6:00 pm at 121 Can­non House Office Build­ing, Washington
(http://csce.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContentRecords.ViewDetail&ContentType=V&ContentRecord_id=127) Read more

U.S. Senators Call on Secretary of State Clinton to Urgently Deny Entry to Two Russian Interior Ministry Generals in Magnitsky Case

November 10, 2011

Yes­ter­day, U.S. Sen­a­tors Roger Wick­er and Ben­jamin Cardin request­ed the US Sec­re­tary of State, Hillary Clin­ton, to urgent­ly review the eli­gi­bil­i­ty for entry into the Unit­ed States of two Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry gen­er­als as a result of their involve­ment in the scan­dal sur­round­ing the vio­lent death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky in Russ­ian state custody. 

Gen­er­als Tatiana Gerasi­mo­va and Niko­lai Shelepanov are sched­uled to arrive to Wash­ing­ton next week, which coin­cides with the sec­ond anniver­sary of Sergei Magnitsky’s death. The two gen­er­als, who hold the most senior posi­tions in the Inte­ri­or Ministry’s Inves­tiga­tive Depart­ment, have been over­see­ing the cov­er-up of Magnitsky’s wrong­ful arrest and tor­ture, and of his tes­ti­monies impli­cat­ing cor­rupt gov­ern­ment offi­cials, since his death two years ago.

“We under­stand that these offi­cials, Gen­er­als Tatiana Gerasi­mo­va and Niko­lai Shelepanov, are involved in the cyn­i­cal and sweep­ing cov­er-up of the tor­ture and mur­der of Russ­ian whistle­blow­er Sergei Mag­nit­sky as well as the cor­rup­tion he exposed…We urge you to imme­di­ate­ly review any pos­si­ble visa appli­ca­tions sub­mit­ted by Gen­er­als Gerasi­mo­va and Shelepanov to ensure that their vis­it is in full com­pli­ance with all U.S. immi­gra­tion laws, prac­tices and pro­ce­dures,” said Sen­a­tors Wick­er and Cardin. Read more

The Russian Investigative Committee is Forced by Foreign Visa Sanctions to Indict 2 out of 60 Officials on the Magnitsky List

November 1, 2011

Press Release
For Imme­di­ate Distribution

The Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee is Forced by For­eign Visa Sanc­tions to Indict 2 out of 60 Offi­cials on the Mag­nit­sky List

Novem­ber 1, 2011 – Today, the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee announced that it had “com­plet­ed” the inves­ti­ga­tion into the death in cus­tody of 37-year old anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, by indict­ing two med­ical offi­cials of the Butyr­ka deten­tion cen­ter in Moscow. 

The Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee said they had no oth­er sus­pects but “in case any oth­er per­sons involved in caus­ing the death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky were to be iden­ti­fied, they would also be held crim­i­nal­ly liable.”

“Today the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee has charged 2 out of 60 offi­cials on the US Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion list of Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials involved in the multi­bil­lion-dol­lar cor­rup­tion uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky, and his sub­se­quent arrest, tor­ture and death in cus­tody. The names of the remain­ing 58 offi­cials are wide­ly known, except as it turns out, for the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

“After two years of inves­ti­ga­tion, Russ­ian author­i­ties are bring­ing charges against the two low­est-lev­el offi­cials out of all those respon­si­ble for this unprece­dent­ed crime. These charges are high­ly ques­tion­able as they allege fail­ure to diag­nose dis­eases (dia­betes and hepati­tis), despite there being no record that Sergei suf­fered from these ailem­nts dur­ing his life,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative. 

“In the mean­time, the Russ­ian author­i­ties con­tin­ue to deprive the victim’s fam­i­ly of access to his per­son­al records and med­ical archive, and have denied the family’s repeat­ed requests for an inde­pen­dent med­ical study into the cause of death,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative. 

“The Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee is charg­ing two Butyr­ka med­ical offi­cials with neg­li­gence, and unin­ten­tion­al care­less­ness, despite the over­whelm­ing evi­dence that Sergei Mag­nit­sky had been deprived of med­ical care in cus­tody delib­er­ate­ly, and inhu­mane­ly,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative. 

“The Russ­ian author­i­ties con­tin­ue to ignore the find­ings of the Pres­i­dent Medvede­v’s Human Rights Coun­cil. The author­i­ties have failed to launch an inves­ti­ga­tion into who and why fab­ri­cat­ed the case against Mag­nit­sky and who orga­nized his tor­ture in cus­tody,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative. 

Last April, the U.S. Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion pub­lished a list of 60 Russ­ian offi­cials from the Inte­ri­or Min­istry, Fed­er­al Secu­ri­ty Ser­vice, Pros­e­cu­tor Office, Tax Ser­vice, court sys­tem and the penal sys­tem shown by doc­u­men­tary evi­dence to be involved in the embez­zle­ment of $230 mil­lion of pub­lic funds and the repres­sion of Sergei Mag­nit­sky who blew the whis­tle on this theft. 

In July this year, the Russ­ian President’s Human Rights Coun­cil found that Sergei Mag­nit­sky was arrest­ed and detained on false charges by offi­cers with con­flict of inter­est, in breach of both the Russ­ian law and the Euro­pean Human Rights Con­ven­tion. The Human Rights Coun­cil also not­ed that there was a wide-spread resis­tance to inves­ti­gate the crimes com­mit­ted against Mag­nit­sky and to pros­e­cute offi­cials com­plic­it in the mas­sive cor­rup­tion Mag­nit­sky had exposed. Four months since the pub­li­ca­tion of the Council’s con­clu­sions, the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee still has failed to launch an inves­ti­ga­tion into the crimes not­ed by the Coun­cil or charge any of the offi­cials named in the Council’s report. 

This Sep­tem­ber, Sergei Magnitsky’s moth­er filed a peti­tion with the Russ­ian State Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee sub­mit­ting new evi­dence that Sergei Mag­nit­sky had been delib­er­ate­ly tor­tured and then mur­dered in cus­tody. Mrs Magnitskaya’s report named high-rank­ing offi­cials respon­si­ble for Magnitsky’s wrong­ful arrest and abuse, includ­ing the Russ­ian Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor and 19 judges, and called for their imme­di­ate pros­e­cu­tion. None of the offi­cials named in the peti­tion from the Magnitsky’s moth­er have been charged.

“The intro­duc­tion of visa and eco­nom­ic sanc­tions in rela­tion to Russ­ian offi­cials in the Mag­nit­sky case has now forced Russ­ian author­i­ties to go after the low-lev­el execu­tors, how­ev­er, there is no jus­tice until all of those involved in the crime against Mag­nit­sky are brought to an open tri­al,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

“The charges must be brought against all those who fab­ri­cat­ed a crim­i­nal case against Sergei Mag­nit­sky, who orga­nized his ille­gal arrest, fal­si­fied evi­dence to hold him in cus­tody, who cre­at­ed his tor­tur­ous con­di­tions, moved him from cell to cell, in the worst con­di­tions, extend­ed his cus­tody, who in the last hours of his life instead of treat­ing him, beat him with rub­ber batons, those who were involved in embez­zling bil­lions of rubles of pub­lic funds and who had a direct inter­est in silenc­ing Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a lawyer who was inves­ti­gat­ing the theft,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion please contact:

Her­mitage Capital
Tel: +44 207 440 17 77
Email: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
Web­site: http://lawandorderinrussia.org

Face­book: http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI
Twit­ter: @KatieFisher__
Live­jour­nal: http://hermitagecap.livejournal.com/

Russian Interior Ministry Refuses to Stop the Posthumous Prosecution of Magnitsky and Intimidation of his Family

October 27, 2011

Today doc­u­ments from Moscow city court revealed that the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry have for­mal­ly denied peti­tions from rel­a­tives of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, to stop his pros­e­cu­tion on fab­ri­cat­ed tax eva­sion charges two years after he died. The Inte­ri­or Min­istry also refused to remove the inves­ti­ga­tors from the posthu­mous case against him who had been named by the President’s Human Rights Coun­cil as hav­ing been respon­si­ble for Magnitsky’s false arrest and tor­ture in police cus­tody in 2009. 

The Inte­ri­or Min­istry fur­ther denied the peti­tion from Magnitsky’s rel­a­tives to cease the intim­i­da­tion of his sur­viv­ing fam­i­ly by means of sum­mons­es for ques­tion­ing as wit­ness­es in the posthu­mous case against him. The Inte­ri­or Min­istry declared that it found no legal vio­la­tions in the activ­i­ties of the inves­tiga­tive team on the Mag­nit­sky case. 

These lat­est devel­op­ments came to light in the sub­mis­sions made on Mon­day in the Moscow City Court, which denied the law­suit from Magnitsky’s rel­a­tives against senior Moscow judge for fail­ure to afford them pro­tec­tion of the courts. Read more

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