French MP Calls for Visa Sanctions on Russian Officials in Case of Torture and Murder of Sergei Magnitsky

October 24, 2011

A lead­ing French politi­cian has called for France to impose visa sanc­tions on Russ­ian offi­cials respon­si­ble for the false arrest, tor­ture and death of in cus­tody of Russ­ian anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky. Jack Lang, a deputy in the French Nation­al Assem­bly and the for­mer Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and Edu­ca­tion of France, asked the French For­eign Min­is­ter Alain Jup­pé last week, to join the USA and the Euro­pean nations in intro­duc­ing visa bans on those Russ­ian offi­cials respon­si­ble for the atro­cious death in cus­tody two years ago of the 37-year old lawyer and father of two, who exposed the largest-known cor­rup­tion scheme in Russ­ian history.

“Mr. Mag­nit­sky died on Novem­ber 16, 2009 as a result of his injuries in cus­tody, where he was placed after he had dis­cov­ered mas­sive fraud com­mit­ted by rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment in 2008. Arrest­ed and detained with­out due process, Mr. Mag­nit­sky was denied any med­ical treat­ment despite atro­cious con­di­tions,” said Jack Lang, MP. Read more

Magnitsky’s Mother Sues Russian Judge for the Denial of Access to Justice

October 24, 2011

Mrs. Natalia Mag­nit­skaya, moth­er of the 37-year old anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, who died in a Russ­ian pre-tri­al deten­tion cen­ter two years ago after being sub­ject­ed to tor­ture and denied med­ical treat­ment, has sued a senior Moscow judge for the denial of access to jus­tice. A hear­ing of her law­suit is sched­uled for Mon­day, 24 Octo­ber, 13:30 at the Moscow City Court (8 Bogorod­sky Val).

Mrs. Mag­nit­skaya is suing Judge Igor Alisov, Chair­man of the Tver­skoi Dis­trict Court in Moscow, for fail­ure to con­sid­er her legal action to stop the pros­e­cu­tion by Russ­ian author­i­ties of her dead son, a pros­e­cu­tion denounced as bar­bar­ic and medieval by friends of her late son. In refus­ing to accept Mrs. Magnitskaya’s claim, Judge Alisov said that the crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion of a dead lawyer does not vio­late his mother’s rights and does not obstruct her access to jus­tice. Read more

Parliamentarians from 29 Countries at the Council of Europe Call on Russia to Prosecute Officials Named in the Human Rights Council Report and Cease Intimidation of Magnitsky Family

October 6, 2011

53 rep­re­sen­ta­tives at the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe (PACE) from 29 coun­tries have co-signed the “Sergei Mag­nit­sky Case” Dec­la­ra­tion No.49 which urges Rus­sia to imme­di­ate­ly pros­e­cute the killers of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a 37-year old Russ­ian anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer. In the writ­ten dec­la­ra­tion pub­lished on the PACE web­site, PACE rep­re­sen­ta­tives also call upon the Russ­ian author­i­ties to cease the intim­i­da­tion of Magnitsky’s fam­i­ly and to allow the fam­i­ly to car­ry out an inde­pen­dent med­ical eval­u­a­tion, which Russ­ian inves­ti­ga­tors and courts have so far refused to do.
“We call on Rus­sia to imme­di­ate­ly pros­e­cute the peo­ple named in the Human Rights Coun­cil’s report, cease the intim­i­da­tion of Mag­nit­sky’s fam­i­ly and allow an inde­pen­dent eval­u­a­tion in his case,” PACE deputies say in the Dec­la­ra­tion. Read more

Dutch Parliament challenges the legitimacy of the official Russian investigation into the death of Sergei Magnitsky and calls medieval the posthumous prosecution of a dead man

October 5, 2011

Yes­ter­day, in a par­lia­men­tary let­ter sent to Dutch For­eign Min­is­ter, Dutch law­mak­ers urged their gov­ern­ment to impose visa bans on Russ­ian offi­cials in Sergei Mag­nit­sky case. They also request­ed that the Dutch Min­is­ter dis­cuss­es joint steps towards Rus­sia in rela­tion to this case at the next meet­ing of the Euro­pean Council. 

In their let­ter, Dutch law­mak­ers stressed that in light of the recent events, it is hard to expect that Rus­sia allow a real inves­ti­ga­tion. The let­ter high­lights the fact that the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry had reject­ed the find­ings of Russ­ian President’s Human Rights Coun­cil which found that Mag­nit­sky was unlaw­ful­ly arrest­ed, beat­en before his death, and no one was held liable for this atrocity. 

Dutch law­mak­ers also labelled as a “medieval bar­barism” the resump­tion by the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry, 18 months after Sergei Magnitsky’s death, the pros­e­cu­tion against him — a man whom they false­ly arrest­ed and tor­tured to death. Read more

Sergei Magnitsky’s Mother Accuses Russian General Prosecutor of Murder

September 26, 2011

Natalia Mag­nit­skaya, the moth­er of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, has filed a crim­i­nal com­plaint against Russ­ian Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Yuri Chai­ka, senior offi­cials of the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry, Fed­er­al Secu­ri­ty Ser­vice, Pen­i­ten­tiary Ser­vice and 11 judges for the con­spir­a­cy to mur­der her son (http://russian-untouchables.com/rus/docs/D275.pdf).

“These indi­vid­u­als and oth­ers orga­nized the repres­sive per­se­cu­tion of my son based on trumped-up charges and using fal­si­fied doc­u­ments in vio­la­tion of Arti­cles 6 and 7 of the Crim­i­nal Pro­ce­dur­al Code of the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion and tor­tured him and urged him to incrim­i­nate him­self and his client, and retract his ear­li­er sworn tes­ti­monies made before his arrest against the Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials,” said Natalia Mag­nit­skaya in her petition.

In the peti­tion filed last week with the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee, Mrs Natalia Mag­nit­skaya and her lawyer Niko­lai Gorokhov, have dis­closed new evi­dence of the vio­lent death of her son in custody.

The mur­der com­plaint expos­es new­ly dis­cov­ered evi­dence from Russ­ian gov­ern­ment case files. The new doc­u­ments show that three days after Sergei Mag­nit­sky died in police cus­tody, the lead inves­ti­ga­tor from the Inves­tiga­tive Committee’s branch for Pre­o­brazhen­sky dis­trict of Moscow con­clud­ed that there was strong evi­dence that Sergei Mag­nit­sky was mur­dered (http://russian-untouchables.com/rus/docs/D276.pdf). The offi­cer rec­om­mend­ed open­ing a mur­der inves­ti­ga­tion. How­ev­er, no inves­ti­ga­tion was opened, and his con­clu­sions were cov­ered up until today.

The mur­der com­plaint filed by Mrs Mag­nit­skaya also high­lights the cir­cum­stances of Sergei Magnitsky’s murder:

“For a peri­od of one and a half to two hours, Mag­nit­sky – who was in acute and excru­ci­at­ing pain – instead of being giv­en med­ical atten­tion, was put in an iso­la­tion cell by eight riot troop­ers, direct­ed by the assis­tant chief of the deten­tion cen­ter togeth­er with his deputy. The emer­gency room physi­cians were giv­en access to him only after one and a half hours, and only to con­firm his death.”

The com­plaint then refers to spe­cif­ic details of the phys­i­cal injuries that Sergei Mag­nit­sky suf­fered (includ­ing injuries to his knuck­les on both hands and deep lac­er­a­tions on the lit­tle fin­ger of his left hand, injuries on his wrists from hand­cuffs and a large hole in his tongue). None of these injuries have been addressed in any of the offi­cial post-mortem exam­i­na­tions done by the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Committee.

The com­plaint also cites a num­ber of text mes­sages which con­tained explic­it death threats which were sent to Sergei Magnitsky’s col­leagues at rough­ly the same time as his death.

Since Magnitsky’s death, the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee has failed to address any of the avail­able evi­dence of his false arrest, tor­ture and mur­der, includ­ing deten­tion cen­ter guards using hand­cuffs and rub­ber batons on Mag­nit­sky in the last two hours of his life.

“The inves­ti­ga­tion, which has con­tin­ued for more than 21 months, has still not giv­en a prop­er assess­ment of the evi­dence of direct vio­lence against Mag­nit­sky, and the inves­ti­gat­ing offi­cials con­tin­ue to refuse to estab­lish the rea­sons for his phys­i­cal injuries…Investigators rely on as “estab­lished facts” the tes­ti­monies of deten­tion cen­ter offi­cials who are inter­est­ed in con­ceal­ing their role in Magnitsky’s death,” says the petition.

Final­ly, the mur­der com­plaint describes the motives of Russ­ian offi­cials to tor­ture and ulti­mate­ly silence Sergei Mag­nit­sky. One month before Magnitsky’s death, in sworn state­ments to the Inte­ri­or Min­istry, he con­firmed the names of five Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers and their role in the theft of $230 mil­lion of pub­lic funds. Three days before his death, in fur­ther court fil­ings, Mag­nit­sky pro­vid­ed addi­tion­al evi­dence of how Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers fab­ri­cat­ed and fal­si­fied doc­u­ments in his case file in order to retal­i­ate against him for pro­vid­ing his pre­vi­ous testimony.

Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Chai­ka and for­mer Deputy Inte­ri­or Min­istry Anichin are named as co-con­spir­a­tors in the crim­i­nal complaint.

“Due to either gross neg­li­gence or the pur­suit of their per­son­al inter­ests, Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Chai­ka Y. Y. and the Head of the Inte­ri­or Ministry’s Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee Anichin A.V. refused or left with­out ade­quate con­sid­er­a­tion my son’s and his attor­neys’ com­plaints, peti­tions and appeals, despite the fact that they were addressed to them and detailed gross vio­la­tions of his rights,” says the complaint.

“With the com­plic­i­ty of senior gov­ern­ment offi­cials, includ­ing Deputy Chief of the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee of the Min­istry of Inter­nal Affairs Logunov O.V. and Deputy Head of the Fed­er­al Pen­i­ten­tiary Ser­vice of the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion Semenyuk V.I. and Petrukhin E.V., my son was repeat­ed­ly trans­ferred between the deten­tion facil­i­ties with the pur­pose of exert­ing fur­ther phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal pres­sure on him,” fur­ther says the petition.

The mur­der com­plaint also demands to inves­ti­gate the role of 11 judges in autho­riz­ing an ille­gal arrest and deten­tion of a know­ing­ly inno­cent indi­vid­ual and the denial of jus­tice and an objec­tive review of his com­plaints, lead­ing to his death.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, act­ing as out­side coun­sel for the Her­mitage Fund, once the largest port­fo­lio investor in Rus­sia, uncov­ered a cor­rupt scheme through which Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials and crim­i­nals stole over $230 mil­lion that had been paid to the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment by the Her­mitage Fund’s com­pa­nies in tax­es. One month after Mag­nit­sky tes­ti­fied about the involve­ment of gov­ern­ment offi­cials in the cor­rupt scheme, he was arrest­ed by those same offi­cials, kept in deten­tion in tor­tur­ous con­di­tions for 358 days with­out tri­al and died on 16 Novem­ber 2009.

From deten­tion, Sergei Mag­nit­sky wrote over 450 peti­tions and com­plaints about the vio­la­tion of his rights and denial of access to jus­tice. His com­plaints were reject­ed by Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials, pros­e­cu­tors and courts. Despite the evi­dence of crim­i­nal con­duct of offi­cials pre­sent­ed in July by the Russ­ian President’s Human Rights Coun­cil, and near­ly two years after Magnitsky’s death in cus­tody, not a sin­gle Russ­ian offi­cial has been pros­e­cut­ed and tried for his false arrest, tor­ture and murder.

Offi­cials Named In the Mur­der Complaint

The fol­low­ing offi­cials have been named in the complaint:
 — Inte­ri­or Min­istry of the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion: Anichin A.V., Logunov O.V., Matveev A.N., Vino­grado­va N.V., Karlov G.V., Silchenko O.F., Kuznetsov A.K., Droganov A.O., Krechetov А.А., Tolchin­sky D.M., Oleinik S.V., Sapuno­va M.О., Dmitrie­va N.I. and oth­er mem­bers of the inves­tiga­tive team and offi­cials of the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Ministry;
 — Gen­er­al Prosecutor’s Office of the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion: Chai­ka Y.Y., Peche­gin A.I., Burov А.V., Altukho­va M.E., Sivozhelez V.А.;
 — Fed­er­al Secu­ri­ty Ser­vice of the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion: Loguntsov А.Е.; and
 — Fed­er­al Pen­i­ten­tiary Ser­vices of the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion: Petrukhin E.V., Semenuk V.I., Prokopenko I.P.., Kom­nov D.V., Kra­tov D.B., Tagiev F.G.”

The fol­low­ing judges have been named:
 — Judges of Tver­skoi Dis­trict Court of Moscow: Stashina E.V.; Podoprig­orov S.G.; Ukhnal­e­va S.V., Krivoruchko A.V., and Nevero­va T.V.,
 — Judges of the Moscow City Court: Vodopy­ano­va L.M., Markov S.M., Andree­va S.V., Nikolenko L.I., Shara­po­va N.V., Rol­geyz­er O.V.

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