Sergei Magnitsky’s Mother Files Complaint Alleging Investigative Fraud in the Criminal Case Against Prison Doctors Responsible for Her Son’s Death

August 3, 2011

The moth­er of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, the Russ­ian anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer who was tor­tured to death in Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry cus­tody, has filed a crim­i­nal com­plaint with the Russ­ian State Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee to inves­ti­gate fraud in the crim­i­nal case that has been opened against the two prison doc­tors respon­si­ble for the death of her son.

There is sub­stan­tial evi­dence in the case file show­ing how Drs Kra­tov and Litvi­no­va of Butyr­ka Pre-Tri­al Deten­tion Cen­ter, togeth­er with oth­er state employ­ees, denied or ignored Magnitsky’s writ­ten peti­tions for med­ical care for the dis­eases of pan­cre­ati­tis, chole­cys­ti­tis and gall­stones which he devel­oped after six months in cus­tody. Mag­nit­sky was pre­scribed surgery for these dis­eases in July 2009. Despite this, he was con­tin­u­al­ly denied an oper­a­tion until death on 16 Novem­ber 2009.

Now, twen­ty months after Magnitsky’s death, rather than inves­ti­gate the delib­er­ate denial of med­ical care to Mag­nit­sky, the offi­cial probe into Drs Kra­tov and Litvi­no­va has been opened based on their alleged fail­ure to diag­nose “new” dis­eases – dia­betes and hepati­tis – despite the fact that there is no evi­dence indi­cat­ing Mag­nit­sky suf­fered from these afflic­tions in his med­ical case file. Read more

Russian Interior Ministry Rejects the Findings of President Medvedev’s Human Rights Council on the Magnitsky Case

August 2, 2011

The Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry has reject­ed the find­ings of Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Medvedev’s Human Rights Coun­cil, which con­clud­ed that senior Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers were com­plic­it in the false arrest, tor­ture and death of 37-year old anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky.

In doc­u­ments issued on 14 July 2011, Inves­ti­ga­tor Boris Kibis of the Cen­tral Fed­er­al Dis­trict of the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry stat­ed that the offi­cial posi­tion of the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry is that the President’s Human Rights Com­mis­sion report was “inad­mis­si­ble” and the offi­cials in the Mag­nit­sky case have com­mit­ted no wrong­do­ing. Fur­ther­more, Kibis con­clud­ed there is no basis to open a crim­i­nal case against them.

These Inte­ri­or Min­istry find­ings fol­low the sec­ond inter­ven­tion by Pres­i­dent Medvedev in the Mag­nit­sky case, when, on 31 May 2011, he ordered Russ­ian law enforce­ment agen­cies to reex­am­ine their role in the events lead­ings up to Magnitsky’s death. In response, the Head of the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Ministry’s Cen­tral Fed­er­al Dis­trict, Pavel Lap­shov and Inves­ti­ga­tor Kibis, were assigned respon­si­bil­i­ty of over­see­ing the “impar­tial inves­ti­ga­tion” into the Inte­ri­or Ministry’s role in Magnitsky’s death. Inves­ti­ga­tor Kibis was also appoint­ed to replace Inves­ti­ga­tor Oleg Silchenko, who was per­son­al­ly respon­si­ble for the arrest and tor­ture of Sergei Mag­nit­sky in cus­tody. Read more

Repressive Criminal Case Against Sergei Magnitsky Opened After His Death in Russia Without His Family’s Consent, Investigators Cleared of Any Wrong-Doing

August 2, 2011

Today a crim­i­nal case was posthu­mous­ly opened against the anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky by the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry, local media reported. 

The crim­i­nal case has been opened on orders from the Russ­ian Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Office cit­ing a recent rul­ing of the Russ­ian Con­sti­tu­tion­al Court which pro­hib­it­ed clos­ing cas­es with­out rel­a­tives’ consent.

How­ev­er, the re-open­ing of the case against Sergei Mag­nit­sky, 20 months after his death, has been car­ried out with­out fam­i­ly’s con­sent by the Inte­ri­or Min­istry, in vio­la­tion of the prin­ci­ple set out by the Con­sti­tu­tion­al Court rul­ing. “This rep­re­sents a clear abuse of the law and due process”, said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

“If this were a legit­i­mate action, the author­i­ties would have sought a fam­i­ly con­sent as required under the Con­sti­tu­tion”, said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal rep­re­sen­ta­tive. Read more

US Government Bans Entry To Russian Officials involved in the Magnitsky Case

July 26, 2011

Today it was con­firmed that US Sec­re­tary of State, Hillary Clin­ton, has imposed visa sanc­tions on Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials asso­ci­at­ed with the death in police cus­tody of 37-year old anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky. Amer­i­ca is the first coun­try to offi­cial­ly impose sanc­tions on the Russ­ian offi­cials involved in the Mag­nit­sky case.

“The facts are so shock­ing about the false arrest, tor­ture and death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky that coun­tries are now start­ing the act to pro­hib­it the peo­ple who killed Sergei from com­ing into their ter­ri­to­ries. The first domi­no has fall­en and many more will fol­low soon,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

This news comes from com­ments by the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion on the forth­com­ing Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion, known as the “Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act of 2011”. This leg­is­la­tion is spon­sored by 19 lead­ing sen­a­tors from both the Demo­c­ra­t­ic and Repub­li­can par­ties. The leg­is­la­tion calls for visa sanc­tions and asset freezes on indi­vid­u­als involved in Magnitsky’s false arrest, tor­ture and death, as well as on per­pe­tra­tors of oth­er gross human rights vio­la­tions. Read more

Sergei Magnitsky’s Mother Goes to Court Against Russian Investigators for Withholding Evidence on the Death of Her Son

July 19, 2011

Today at noon the Bas­man­ny dis­trict court in Moscow (11 Kalanchevskaya street) will hear a law­suit filed by Sergei Magnitsky’s moth­er demand­ing that the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee release tis­sue sam­ples of her dead son, a 37-year old Russ­ian anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer who was tor­tured to death in police custody.

Mrs. Natalia Mag­nit­skaya filed a law­suit after the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee refused to give her access to the archive of tis­sues and organs which have been in state cus­tody since Sergei Magnitsky’s death on Novem­ber 16, 2009. The Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly is seek­ing an inde­pen­dent med­ical eval­u­a­tion because the Russ­ian author­i­ties have giv­en con­tra­dic­to­ry accounts of Magnitsky’s death, includ­ing the time, place and the rea­son of his death, and have con­cealed the evi­dence of the role offi­cials had played in his tor­ture in cus­tody. After Magnitsky’s death, Russ­ian author­i­ties have refused fam­i­ly requests for an inde­pen­dent autop­sy, as well as review by inde­pen­dent experts. As a result, his body was buried with­out any objec­tive third-par­ty exam­i­na­tion. Read more

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