UK Foreign Ministry Releases 2010 Human Rights Report —  Magnitsky Case Highlights Russian Corruption

April 4, 2011

The UK For­eign & Com­mon­wealth Office has named the case of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a 37-year old Russ­ian anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer killed in police cus­tody in Moscow, as one of the most seri­ous vio­la­tions of the rule of law and human rights in Rus­sia in its 2010 “Human Rights and Democ­ra­cy” Report pub­lished last week. The 2010 Report high­lights the call by the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment for EU-wide visa and eco­nom­ic sanc­tions against the Russ­ian offi­cials involved in Magnitsky’s death.

“The inves­ti­ga­tion into the death in pre-tri­al deten­tion of Sergei Mag­nit­sky due to inad­e­quate med­ical treat­ment had not con­clud­ed by the end of 2010. On the anniver­sary of his death on 16 Novem­ber, the Prosecutor-General’s Office announced that it was extend­ing the ‘pre­lim­i­nary’ inves­ti­ga­tion until 24 Feb­ru­ary 2011. On the same day, the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment passed a res­o­lu­tion call­ing for sanc­tions against offi­cials involved in Magnitsky’s death to pre­vent them from enter­ing the EU, and to freeze their assets,” said the FCO in the 2010 Report.

The 2010 FCO Report stress­es the lack of any out­come to the state inves­ti­ga­tion into Magnitsky’s death two years ago at the hands of Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials he accused of steal­ing $230 mil­lion of pub­lic funds. The FCO voic­es its sup­port for an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion into the Mag­nit­sky death being car­ried out by human rights activists.

“No new infor­ma­tion emerged in the inves­ti­ga­tions into the mur­ders of the human rights defend­ers Anna Politkovskaya and Natalya Estemiro­va, or the death in cus­tody of Sergei Magnitsky…During 2010 we sup­port­ed the Social Part­ner­ship Foundation’s work to estab­lish a net­work of inde­pen­dent prison mon­i­tor­ing boards and con­duct an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion into the Mag­nit­sky case,” stat­ed the FCO in the Report’s sec­tion titled “Human Rights in Coun­tries of Concern.”

The 2010 FCO “Human Rights and Democ­ra­cy” report was pre­sent­ed to the UK Par­lia­ment last Thurs­day, 31 March 2011.

“It [the Report] is intend­ed not only to shine a light on human rights vio­la­tions but to inform our work and shape our future pol­i­cy,” said For­eign Sec­re­tary William Hague address­ing the launch of the 2010 FCO Report.

The 2010 FCO report sum­maris­es the dire state of human rights and the grow­ing cor­rup­tion in Rus­sia, saying:

“Despite some minor reforms and encour­ag­ing pub­lic state­ments about human rights in 2010, there was no evi­dence of sys­temic, far-reach­ing change… Cor­rup­tion remains a wide­spread fea­ture of Russ­ian soci­ety… Trans­paren­cy International’s 2010 Cor­rup­tion Per­cep­tions Index ranked Rus­sia 154 out of 178 coun­tries. They also report­ed that 53% of Rus­sians believe that cor­rup­tion had increased in the coun­try over the past three years. Russia’s Pres­i­den­tial Anti-Cor­rup­tion Coun­cil made lit­tle impact in 2010…”

In total, the 2010 FCO Report fea­tures 26 coun­tries that present the most seri­ous and wide‑ranging human rights con­cerns and that had received tar­get­ed human rights engage­ment by the FCO in 2010.

Full text of the FCO Human Rights and Democ­ra­cy Report:
http://s3-eu-west‑1.amazonaws.com/htcdn/Human-Rights-and-Democracy-The-2010-Foreign-Commonwealth-Report.pdf

Address by William Hague
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?view=Speech&id=576187382

The Perpetrator of the Tax Fraud Uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky Escapes Punishment for His Role in Russia’s Largest Tax Crime

March 23, 2011

Vyach­eslav Khleb­nikov, one of the per­pe­tra­tors of the $230 mil­lion tax fraud exposed by lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky has escaped from any sig­nif­i­cant sen­tenc­ing for his role in the crime despite the grav­i­ty of the crime and in spite of Khlebnikov’s pre­vi­ous crim­i­nal con­vic­tions. Instead, he has been giv­en a light sen­tence by Igor Alisov, Chief Judge of the Tver­skoi Dis­trict Court of Moscow.

Accord­ing to the court, Khleb­nikov was sen­tenced to 5 years in a colony but faced no finan­cial fines and was not required to return the $230 mil­lion in stolen funds or iden­ti­fy where the mon­ey had gone. The hear­ing and sen­tenc­ing took place in a tri­al which did not have wit­ness­es and which did not require any evi­dence, instead rely­ing sole­ly on Khlebnikov’s own tes­ti­mo­ny. The pub­lic was not informed of the sen­tenc­ing despite for­mal appeals filed with the Russ­ian Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tors Office by Magnitsky’s col­leagues, who insist­ed on a pub­lic and trans­par­ent hear­ing (See link of com­plaint).

Khleb­nikov was con­vict­ed under Arti­cle 159 of Russ­ian Crim­i­nal Code which rec­om­mends sen­tences last­ing between 5 and 10 years, depend­ing upon the seri­ous­ness and scale of the crime committed.

Vyach­eslav Khleb­nikov, who already has a long crim­i­nal record, received the light­est pos­si­ble sen­tence of only 5 years which he can appeal and have fur­ther reduced.

A Her­mitage Cap­i­tal rep­re­sen­ta­tive said:

“Khlebnikov’s light sen­tence is yet anoth­er exam­ple of how the cov­er-up of those involved in Russia’s largest ever tax fraud con­tin­ues. The mon­ey stolen by men like Khleb­nikov belongs to the Russ­ian peo­ple, and pass­ing such lenient and irrel­e­vant sen­tences mere­ly con­firms that the author­i­ties don’t real­ly care about jus­tice or the crimes but only about their own protection.”

Vyach­eslav Khleb­nikov is the sec­ond ex-con­vict after Vic­tor Markelov, sen­tenced to prison time with­out any finan­cial penal­ty for their role in per­pe­trat­ing the largest tax rebate fraud in Russ­ian his­to­ry. Khleb­nikov is a 43-year-old felon from Tam­bov region. His name first re-sur­faced at the end of 2007 when the Her­mitage Fund com­plained about the theft of their Russ­ian com­pa­nies by senior offi­cials in the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry, Russ­ian judges and organ­ised crim­i­nals, includ­ing Khleb­nikov and Vic­tor Markelov. The com­plaints were filed after the plot to defraud the Russ­ian state was uncov­ered, near­ly one month before the crim­i­nals actu­al­ly stole $230 mil­lion of tax­es under the guise of a “tax refund”. Despite a series of com­plaints from the Her­mitage Fund and tes­ti­monies from Sergei Mag­nit­sky him­self, the Russ­ian author­i­ties refused to take any action which would have pre­vent­ed the $230 mil­lion theft from occur­ring. For two years, the Russ­ian author­i­ties dis­missed any notion of Khlebnikov’s involve­ment in the fraud, releas­ing him from pros­e­cu­tion three times.

A Her­mitage Cap­i­tal rep­re­sen­ta­tive said:

“It is remark­able how many steps the Russ­ian author­i­ties are pre­pared to take to avoid bring­ing to jus­tice the real cul­prits of the crimes, even as they con­tin­ue to try and black­en Sergei Magnitsky’s name when he was sim­ply doing his duty as a loy­al cit­i­zen by expos­ing cor­rup­tion by gov­ern­ment officials.”

In Octo­ber 2008, Sergei Mag­nit­sky, out­side coun­sel to the Her­mitage Fund, gave sworn tes­ti­mo­ny to the Russ­ian State Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee, pro­vid­ing evi­dence of the involve­ment in the tax fraud of Khleb­nikov and oth­er organ­ised crim­i­nals along with senior Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials, Lt Col Kuznetsov and Major Kar­pov. Soon after Mag­nit­sky tes­ti­fied, he was arrest­ed at his home by Lt Col Kuznetsov’s sub­or­di­nates. Mag­nit­sky was kept for 358 days in pre-tri­al deten­tion in tor­tur­ous con­di­tions, where he even­tu­al­ly died from a lack of med­ical care at the age of 37, leav­ing behind a wife and two children.

Offi­cers Kuznetsov and Kar­pov, whose fam­i­lies sud­den­ly acquired wealth of more than $4 mil­lion dol­lars fol­low­ing the exe­cu­tion of the tax fraud, were freed by Russ­ian author­i­ties from pros­e­cu­tion and were pro­mot­ed and hon­oured in Novem­ber 2010.

Over the last three years, the Her­mitage Fund has filed more than 20 com­plaints seek­ing the pros­e­cu­tion of the offi­cials and crim­i­nals who stole three Russ­ian com­pa­nies from the Her­mitage Fund and who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the false arrest, tor­ture and mur­der of Sergei Mag­nit­sky. In response, the Russ­ian author­i­ties have opened crim­i­nal cas­es against all Russ­ian lawyers who filed the com­plaint on behalf of the Her­mitage Fund.

Head of the Russian State Investigative Committee Refuses to Open an Investigation into the Torture of Sergei Magnitsky, Fears Scrutiny by the “Man in the Street”

March 17, 2011

Cit­ing the “com­plex­i­ty of med­ical issues” which the “man on the street” is unable to com­pre­hend, Alexan­der Bas­trykin, Head of the Russ­ian State Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee, yes­ter­day refused to open an inves­ti­ga­tion into the tor­ture and mur­der of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a 37-year old lawyer for Her­mitage Fund while in Inte­ri­or Min­istry cus­tody. Mr. Bas­trykin announced this posi­tion at a pub­lic speech in St. Petersburg.

The State Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee has issued this refusal despite calls from Russ­ian and inter­na­tion­al human rights activists and a grow­ing inter­na­tion­al con­sen­sus among both gov­ern­ments and activists that the Mag­nit­sky case must be inves­ti­gat­ed. The State Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee also intends to with­hold from pub­lic inspec­tion the results of the ongo­ing inves­ti­ga­tion into the denial of med­ical care to Mag­nit­sky in the final months of his life.

“Mr Bas­trykin yes­ter­day tried to present the Mag­nit­sky case as a com­plex med­ical mat­ter while in fact this case is sim­ply about the tor­ture and inhu­man treat­ment of a young man in cus­tody which result­ed in his death,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal rep­re­sen­ta­tive. “For months Mag­nit­sky was deprived of sleep, access to clean water and hot food, trans­ferred numer­ous times between cells at night, denied vis­its of his fam­i­ly and young chil­dren, denied pre­scribed surgery, ultra­sound and even sim­ple lab tests and on his last day was left to die on the cell floor for sev­er­al hours with no doc­tor present. These are not mat­ters that are dif­fi­cult to under­stand. In fact, they are mat­ters that have earned the sym­pa­thy of every­one who hears Magnitsky’s trag­ic sto­ry. It appears that Mr Bas­trykin is afraid of pub­lic scruti­ny over this case and the government’s fail­ure to bring any­one to jus­tice 16 months after Sergei died.” Read more

UK Prime Minister Expresses Frustration Over Lack of Progress with Investigation into Torture and Murder of Sergei Magnitsky

March 2, 2011

Press Release

For Imme­di­ate Distribution

UK Prime Min­is­ter Express­es Frus­tra­tion Over Lack of Progress with Inves­ti­ga­tion into Tor­ture and Mur­der of Sergei Magnitsky

2 March 2011 — In a move reflect­ing the increas­ing sig­nif­i­cance of the Sergei Mag­nit­sky case to UK-Rus­sia rela­tions, UK Prime Min­is­ter David Cameron has expressed his con­cern over the lack of progress with the Russ­ian inves­ti­ga­tion into the tor­ture and death in police cus­tody of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, an anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer work­ing for the UK invest­ment firm, Her­mitage Capital.

In a let­ter to William Brow­der, CEO of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal, Prime Min­is­ter Cameron wrote that he had raised his con­cerns about the Mag­nit­sky case dur­ing his meet­ings with Russ­ian For­eign Min­is­ter Sergei Lavrov dur­ing his offi­cial vis­it to Lon­don in mid-February.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, an out­side lawyer work­ing for Her­mitage, was false­ly arrest­ed, tor­tured and killed in police cus­tody after uncov­er­ing and expos­ing a US$230 mil­lion tax fraud com­mit­ted by Russ­ian police offi­cials and tes­ti­fy­ing against those who com­mit­ted the crimes.

In the let­ter, Prime Min­is­ter Cameron stated:

“I have now been briefed about the case and am deeply con­cerned by its impli­ca­tions for the rule of law and respect for human rights in Rus­sia. It is of par­tic­u­lar con­cern that the offi­cial inves­ti­ga­tion announced by Pres­i­dent Medvedev in Novem­ber 2009 has not yet report­ed its findings.”

Prime Min­is­ter Cameron also pledged to track the Mag­nit­sky case ahead of his planned vis­it to Rus­sia lat­er this year. He wrote:

“The For­eign Sec­re­tary and I dis­cussed the Mag­nit­sky case with Russ­ian For­eign Min­is­ter Sergei Lavrov when I met him in Down­ing Street on 15 Feb­ru­ary. We will con­tin­ue to track progress on the case ahead of my planned vis­it to Rus­sia lat­er this year. The Gov­ern­men­t’s response to the case is being led by the Min­is­ter for Europe, David Liddington.”

A total of 22 British MP’s have signed an Ear­ly Day Motion call­ing on the British gov­ern­ment to impose visa sanc­tions and to freeze the assets of those Russ­ian offi­cials involved in Magnitsky’s tor­ture and death and the large-scale cor­rup­tion he uncov­ered. The MP’s rep­re­sent a wide cross-par­ty spec­trum span­ning Con­ser­v­a­tives, Lib­er­al Democ­rats, Labour, SDLP and the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Union­ist Party.

In Jan­u­ary 2011, Chris Bryant MP, the UK Shad­ow Jus­tice Min­is­ter and for­mer Min­is­ter for Europe, sub­mit­ted to the UK Home Sec­re­tary an exten­sive 1,000-page dossier with evi­dence out­lin­ing the roles played by 60 Russ­ian offi­cials involved in Mr. Magnitsky’s arrest, tor­ture and death. Mr. Bryant also called on the British Gov­ern­ment to for­mal­ly des­ig­nate these Russ­ian offi­cials as “eco­nom­ic ter­ror­ists” under the Ter­ror­ism Act for their role in harm­ing British eco­nom­ic interests.

Despite well-doc­u­ment­ed evi­dence of abuse of office and the enrich­ment of Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials involved in the tor­ture and death of Mr. Mag­nit­sky, Russ­ian author­i­ties have, to date, refused to inves­ti­gate and bring those offi­cials to tri­al. Instead, the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment pro­mot­ed and gave state hon­ours to those same offi­cials on the one-year anniver­sary of Sergei Magnitsky’s death in custody.

In April 2010, the US Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion (US OSCE Com­mis­sion) issued an offi­cial list of 60 Russ­ian offi­cials impli­cat­ed in the unlaw­ful arrest, tor­ture and death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky and the theft of US$230 mil­lion of pub­lic funds he uncov­ered. Short­ly there­after, the US Con­gress and Cana­di­an Par­lia­ment put for­ward leg­is­la­tion impos­ing visa bans and asset freezes on those Russ­ian offi­cials. On 16 Decem­ber 2010, the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment adopt­ed, with an over­whelm­ing major­i­ty, a res­o­lu­tion call­ing upon the Euro­pean Coun­cil for “an EU entry ban for Russ­ian offi­cials involved in Magnitsky’s case” and encour­ag­ing coop­er­a­tion of EU law enforce­ment “in freez­ing bank accounts and oth­er assets of these Russ­ian offi­cials in all EU Mem­ber States.”

Her­mitage Cap­i­tal was for a decade the largest for­eign port­fo­lio investor in Rus­sia, and this case has devel­oped a high pro­file around the world. The Her­mitage case and per­se­cu­tion of its lawyers and exec­u­tives by Russ­ian author­i­ties have been for­mal­ly rec­og­nized by the Coun­cil of Europe as “emblem­at­ic of the polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed abuse of the crim­i­nal jus­tice system.”

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion please contact:

Her­mitage Capital 

+44 207 440 1777
info@lawandorderinrussia.org
http://lawandorderinrussia.org

Back­ground Information:

Sergei Mag­nit­sky (8 April 1972 — 16 Novem­ber 2009), an out­side lawyer for the Her­mitage Fund, blew the whis­tle on wide­spread Russ­ian gov­ern­ment cor­rup­tion, involv­ing offi­cials from Russ­ian law enforce­ment and secu­ri­ty ser­vices. The offi­cials he tes­ti­fied against arrest­ed and detained him, begin­ning a night­mare in which he was thrown into cus­tody with­out bail or tri­al, and sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly tor­tured for one year in an attempt to force him to retract his tes­ti­mo­ny. Despite the phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal pain Sergei Mag­nit­sky endured from his cap­tors, he refused to per­jure him­self, even as his health dete­ri­o­rat­ed. Denied med­ical care for the last four months of his deten­tion, he died in the Butyr­ka remand cen­tre at the age of 37, leav­ing a wife and two children.

22 British MPs Call on the Government to Impose Visa Sanctions on Magnitsky Murderers

February 11, 2011

22 MPs rep­re­sent­ing a wide spec­trum of polit­i­cal par­ties includ­ing Con­ser­v­a­tive, Labour, Lib­er­al Democ­rats, SDLP and Demo­c­ra­t­ic Union­ist Par­ty, called on the British gov­ern­ment to impose visa sanc­tions and asset freezes on the Russ­ian offi­cials who killed Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a 37-year old anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer who rep­re­sent­ed a British invest­ment firm.

The motion was intro­duced by Chris Bryant MP, a Shad­ow Jus­tice Min­is­ter and for­mer Min­is­ter for Europe. The motion was also signed by Rt Hon Mal­colm Rifkind MP, for­mer For­eign Sec­re­tary under Prime Min­is­ter John Major, and cur­rent Chair­man of the Intel­li­gence and Secu­ri­ty Com­mit­tee, Denis Mac­Shane MP, For­mer Min­is­ter for Europe under Prime Min­is­ter Tony Blair and Nicholas Soames MP, for­mer Min­is­ter for Defence under Prime Min­is­ter John Major

(http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=42195&SESSION=905). Read more

« Previous Page — Next Page »

• Link