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Foreign Policy Magazine: They Killed My Lawyer. A story of Putin’s Russia.

December 25, 2009

Sergei Mag­nit­sky was our attor­ney, and friend, who died under excru­ci­at­ing cir­cum­stances in a Moscow pre-tri­al deten­tion cen­ter on Nov. 16, 2009. His sto­ry is one of extra­or­di­nary brav­ery and hero­ism, and ulti­mate­ly tragedy. It is also a sto­ry about how Stal­in­ism and the gulags are alive and well in Rus­sia today.

Ulti­mate­ly Sergei died for a prin­ci­ple — he died because believed in the rule of law in Rus­sia. When he stum­bled upon an enor­mous fraud against his clients and the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment, he thought he was sim­ply doing the right thing by report­ing it. He nev­er imag­ined that he would die for his efforts.

The pre­cise cir­cum­stances of his death are still unclear. We do know Sergei died sud­den­ly at the age of 37, after an 11-month deten­tion. At first, the deten­tion cen­ter where he died said the cause of his death was a rup­ture to his abdom­i­nal mem­brane, but on the same day the prison offi­cials changed their sto­ry, say­ing he had died of a heart attack. They refused his fam­i­ly’s request to con­duct an inde­pen­dent autop­sy. His diaries are report­ed to be missing.

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Time: The Danger of Doing Business in Russia

December 19, 2009

On Oct. 13, Russ­ian lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, impris­oned on tax eva­sion charges, told Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry inves­ti­ga­tors that he was being denied med­ical care and sub­ject­ed to “inhu­mane and humil­i­at­ing con­di­tions” in Moscow’s noto­ri­ous Butyr­ka jail. The treat­ment, he said, result­ed from his refusal to give false tes­ti­mo­ny against him­self and oth­ers. A month lat­er, Mag­nit­sky, 37, was dead. The Inte­ri­or Min­istry, which had charged the lawyer with con­spir­ing to help William Brow­der, head of the Lon­don-based invest­ment firm Her­mitage Cap­i­tal, alleged­ly evade more than $3 mil­lion in tax­es, said it had not been aware that he had been ill. In prison notes released by his attor­neys, how­ev­er, Mag­nit­sky repeat­ed­ly com­plained about being refused treat­ment for pan­cre­ati­tis, a con­di­tion his friends and col­leagues say led to his death.

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WSJ: Russia Fires Prison Officials Amid Inquiry Into Lawyer’s Death

December 11, 2009

MOSCOW — Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Dmit­ry Medvedev fired sev­er­al top prison offi­cials after an inter­nal inves­ti­ga­tion found pro­ce­dures were vio­lat­ed in the treat­ment of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a lawyer who died in a Moscow jail await­ing tri­al last month, a top offi­cial said Friday.

The sack­ings fall short, how­ev­er, of the broad­er inquiry into alleged police and judi­cial cor­rup­tion that Mr. Mag­nit­sky’s for­mer col­leagues have called for.

“Nobody is look­ing at why Sergei was put in prison in the first place and why his con­di­tions were made so bad,” said Jami­son Fire­stone, man­ag­ing part­ner of the Moscow law firm where Mr. Mag­nit­sky worked. “It’s a total cover-up.”

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Daily Express: LAWYER DIES IN MOSCOW JAIL DAYS BEFORE RELEASE

November 22, 2009

SERGEI Mag­nit­sky, a Russ­ian lawyer who was cam­paign­ing against fraud and cor­rup­tion, died in a noto­ri­ous Moscow jail last week just days before he was due to be released. He had been kept there with­out tri­al for 12 months.

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Hermitage Lawyer Dies in Russian Jail

November 17, 2009

A lawyer for invest­ment fund Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment, jailed on tax charges relat­ed to his work for the fund, has died in cus­tody, Iri­na Duduk­i­na, spokes­woman for the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee of Rus­si­a’s Inte­ri­or Min­istry said Tuesday.

She pro­vid­ed no fur­ther details, say­ing a release would be issued lat­er. Sergei Mag­nit­sky and his col­leagues had accused author­i­ties of deny­ing him nec­es­sary med­ical treat­ment in prison.

Mr. Mag­nit­sky, a 37-year-old part­ner at Moscow firm Fire­stone Dun­can, was jailed near­ly a year ago on charges of tax eva­sion relat­ed to his work for Her­mitage. At a court hear­ing on extend­ing his deten­tion in Sep­tem­ber, he com­plained that he had been denied med­ical treat­ment for weeks for seri­ous stom­ach pan­cre­at­ic ill­ness­es that he had­n’t suf­fered from before his impris­on­ment. He also com­plained of inhu­mane con­di­tions — includ­ing the absence of toi­let, hot water and win­dows — at the Butyrskaya jail where he was then being held.

“They held him for 11 months, ask­ing him to fab­ri­cate tes­ti­mo­ny against Her­mitage,” said Jami­son Fire­stone, man­ag­ing part­ner of Fire­stone Dun­can. “The more he refused, the worse his con­di­tions became.”

If con­vict­ed of tax fraud, Mr. Mag­nit­sky would have faced up to six years in prison. Russ­ian offi­cials have denied pres­sur­ing Mr. Mag­nit­sky for testimony.

Her­mitage, run by U.S.-born investor William Brow­der, denies the tax-eva­sion charges. The fund has accused offi­cials of the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry of using doc­u­ments and seals tak­en from Her­mitage dur­ing a 2007 search to steal com­pa­nies used by the fund and apply for $230 mil­lion in fraud­u­lent tax refunds from the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment. The min­istry denies those charges.

Mr. Brow­der was one of the best-known for­eign investors in Rus­sia, with a rep­u­ta­tion for pub­licly cru­sad­ing against waste and mis­man­age­ment at Rus­sia state-con­trolled com­pa­nies. But Russ­ian author­i­ties stripped him of his visa in 2005 on nation­al-secu­ri­ty grounds and he has­n’t been able to return since. The Inte­ri­or Min­istry says he’s been charged with tax eva­sion, alle­ga­tions he denies.

By GREG WHITE, The Wall Street Journal

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