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Pussy Riot to Lead Tribute to Sergei Magnitsky at the British Parliament on the Fifth Anniversary of His Murder in Russian Police Custody

November 12, 2014

Pussy Riot to Lead Trib­ute to Sergei Mag­nit­sky at the British Par­lia­ment on the Fifth Anniver­sary of His Mur­der in Russ­ian Police Custody

11 Novem­ber 2014 – This month marks the fifth anniver­sary of the killing in Russ­ian police cus­tody of 37-year old anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, who exposed a $230 mil­lion fraud per­pe­trat­ed by Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials and organ­ised criminals. 

While his death ignit­ed world­wide con­dem­na­tion and lead to numer­ous polit­i­cal and legal calls for jus­tice around the globe, five years on there is still no jus­tice in Rus­sia for Sergei Magnitsky.

To mark the mem­o­ry of Sergei Mag­nit­sky and the fight against cor­rup­tion which he gave his life for, politi­cians, artists, jour­nal­ists and cam­paign­ers will gath­er in Lon­don on Tues­day 18 Novem­ber 2014 to par­tic­i­pate in a major pan­el by Hen­ry Jack­son Soci­ety to be held at the British parliament.

The ses­sion chaired by Chris Bryant, MP, is enti­tled ‘Prospects for Rus­sia after Putin: Five Years from the Death of Sergei Magnitsky.’ 

Among the pan­elists are mem­bers of the Russ­ian punk protest group Pussy Riot, Nadezh­da Tolokon­niko­va and Maria Alekhi­na, who were pre­vi­ous­ly jailed in Rus­sia for stag­ing an anti-Putin protest in a Moscow church. Also par­tic­i­pat­ing will be Hon Irwin Cotler MP, for­mer Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor of Cana­da, who rep­re­sent­ed pris­on­ers of con­science Nathan Sha­ran­sky and Nel­son Man­dela; for­mer Russ­ian Prime Min­is­ter Mikhail Kasyanov; envi­ron­men­tal activist and oppo­si­tion leader Evge­nia Chiriko­va; and Fran­co-Rus­so jour­nal­ist Ele­na Servet­taz, author of the book, “Why Europe Needs a Mag­nit­sky Law”.

“This event will com­mem­o­rate Sergei Magnitsky’s lega­cy by bring­ing togeth­er some of the top human rights cam­paign­ers to dis­cuss Rus­sia after Putin, and if there is a chance for the kind of Rus­sia that Sergei Mag­nit­sky believed in,” said a Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Cam­paign representative.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky was a 37-year old lawyer and out­side coun­sel for the Her­mitage Fund, who was tor­tured to death in Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry cus­tody after he tes­ti­fied about the involve­ment of Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials in the theft of his client’s com­pa­nies and the $230 mil­lion theft. The Russ­ian offi­cials respon­si­ble for his arrest, tor­ture and killing were absolved from any respon­si­bil­i­ty, pro­mot­ed and dec­o­rat­ed with state honours.

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Campaign
+44 2074401777
info@lawandorderinrussia.org
lawandorderinrussia.org

To reg­is­ter your atten­dance at the Mag­nit­sky event, please go to Hen­ry Jack­son Soci­ety website:
http://henryjacksonsociety.org/2014/11/18/prospects-for-russia-after-putin-five-years-from-the-death-of-sergei-magnitsky/

Ambassadors from Council of Europe States Reject Parliamentarians’ Call to Improve Judicial Cooperation in Case Exposed by Murdered Lawyer Sergei Magnitsky

November 12, 2014

Ambas­sadors from Coun­cil of Europe States Reject Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans’ Call to Improve Judi­cial Coop­er­a­tion in Case Exposed by Mur­dered Lawyer Sergei Magnitsky

10 Novem­ber 2014 – For­eign min­istry offi­cials from the Coun­cil of Europe have issued a rejec­tion of demands by par­lia­men­tar­i­ans from 47-mem­ber states to improve inter­na­tion­al judi­cial coop­er­a­tion in the mon­ey laun­der­ing case exposed by mur­dered anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. 

Chaired by Mr E. Eyyubov, Deputy For­eign Affairs Min­is­ter of Azer­bai­jan, the Stras­bourg-based ambas­sadors com­pris­ing the Coun­cil of Europe’s Com­mit­tee of Min­is­ters, the inter­na­tion­al organisation’s deci­sion-mak­ing body, refused to pro­pose any con­crete mea­sures that par­lia­men­tar­i­ans have asked for in their Rec­om­men­da­tion enti­tled “Refus­ing Impuni­ty for the Killers of Sergei Mag­nit­sky” which was adopt­ed by over­whelm­ing major­i­ty in Jan­u­ary this year.

The par­lia­men­tar­i­ans of the Coun­cil of Europe’s Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly asked in their Jan­u­ary 2014 rec­om­men­da­tion the Com­mit­tee of For­eign Affairs Min­is­ters to:
“exam­ine ways and means of improv­ing inter­na­tion­al co-oper­a­tion in inves­ti­gat­ing the “mon­ey trail” of the funds orig­i­nat­ing in the fraud­u­lent tax reim­burse­ments denounced by Mr Mag­nit­sky; and, in par­tic­u­lar, of ensur­ing that the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion ful­ly par­tic­i­pates in these efforts.” (http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-EN.asp?fileid=20410&lang=en)

In the response to par­lia­men­tar­i­ans, the Com­mit­tee of Min­is­ters ignored the rec­om­men­da­tions com­plete­ly and changed the sub­ject cit­ing sev­er­al gen­er­al reports on Rus­sia issued by MONEYVAL, a Coun­cil of Europe’s body in the area of anti-mon­ey laun­der­ing. None of the reports exam­ine the $230 mil­lion mon­ey laun­der­ing case exposed by Sergei Mag­nit­sky in any way. 

“Although MONEYVAL does not address indi­vid­ual cas­es, it aims to pro­vide its mem­bers with the capac­i­ty to fight mon­ey-laun­der­ing with­in their bor­ders and to co-oper­ate in order to pre­vent trans­bor­der mon­ey-laun­der­ing. At the inter­na­tion­al lev­el, MONEYVAL works close­ly togeth­er with the Finan­cial Action Task Force on Mon­ey Laun­der­ing (FATF). The Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion is a mem­ber of both these bod­ies,” said the response from the Com­mit­tee of Min­is­ters to par­lia­men­tar­i­ans pub­lished on the offi­cial Coun­cil of Europe web­site (http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=21312&lang=en).

The diplo­mat­ic answer to Coun­cil of Europe’s par­lia­men­tar­i­ans from the Com­mit­tee of Min­is­ters adopt­ed at the Committee’s ses­sion on 22 and 24 Octo­ber in Stras­bourg fur­ther said: 

“The Com­mit­tee [of Min­is­ters] reit­er­ates its call for an effec­tive inves­ti­ga­tion and the bring­ing to jus­tice of those responsible.”

Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky cam­paign rep­re­sen­ta­tive said: 

“This strange bureau­crat­ic response is defy­ing the efforts of par­lia­men­tar­i­ans from 47 coun­tries in Europe to achieve some mea­sure of jus­tice in the Mag­nit­sky case. It is also an aban­don­ment of Sergei Mag­nit­sky who paid with his life try­ing to stop cor­rupt Russ­ian offi­cials from steal­ing mil­lions from his coun­try. The appoint­ed diplo­mats in Europe should heed the call from the elect­ed par­lia­men­tar­i­ans who have shown the resolve of the peo­ple to see that jus­tice is done.”

The par­lia­men­tar­i­ans’ rec­om­men­da­tion was based on the inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion into the Mag­nit­sky case con­duct­ed by Coun­cil of Europe’s Rap­por­teur, Swiss MP Andreas Gross, who con­clud­ed that there was a need to improve inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion in this case because of the high-lev­el cov­er up in this case in Russia.

Rap­por­teur Gross stated:
“My ini­tial con­clu­sion, name­ly that we are in the pres­ence of a mas­sive cov­er-up involv­ing senior offi­cials of the com­pe­tent min­istries, the Pros­e­cu­tor General’s Office, the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee and even cer­tain courts finds itself fur­ther con­sol­i­dat­ed.” (Report “Refus­ing the Impuni­ty for the Killers of Sergei Mag­nit­sky” http://www.assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/X2H-Xref-ViewPDF.asp?FileID=20084&lang=en).

Rap­por­teur Gross point­ed out that the mon­ey laun­der­ing exposed by Sergei Mag­nit­sky has been traced to a large num­ber of Euro­pean states which neces­si­tat­ed inter­na­tion­al judi­cial coop­er­a­tion in this case:

“The laun­der­ing of the funds that can be traced back to the fraud­u­lent US$230 mil­lion tax refund denounced by Mr Mag­nit­sky has involved a large num­ber of Euro­pean States… Giv­en the com­plex­i­ty of the crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tions required and the obvi­ous need for inter­na­tion­al co-oper­a­tion, the Assem­bly should also seize the Com­mit­tee of Min­is­ters in order to ensure that this impor­tant affair is includ­ed on the agen­da of inter­gov­ern­men­tal co-oper­a­tion.” (Adden­dum to Report “Refus­ing the Impuni­ty for the Killers of Sergei Mag­nit­sky”, http://www.assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/X2H-Xref-ViewPDF.asp?FileID=20345&lang=en)

Con­clu­sions expressed in the report “Refus­ing Impuni­ty for the Killers of Sergei Mag­nit­sky” pre­pared by Rap­por­teur Gross were adopt­ed by over­whelm­ing major­i­ty this Jan­u­ary by the 47-mem­ber state Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe (Res­o­lu­tion “Refus­ing the Impuni­ty for the Killers of Sergei Mag­nit­sky” http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=20409&lang=en).

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion please contact:

Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky campaign
Phone: +44 207 440 1777
Email: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
Web­site: http://lawandorderinrussia.org

Sergei Magnitsky Justice Campaigners Demand Transparent Investigation into the Suspicious Death in Moscow of Russian Actor and Civil Rights Activist Alexei Devotchenko

November 6, 2014

Sergei Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Cam­paign­ers Demand Trans­par­ent Inves­ti­ga­tion into the Sus­pi­cious Death in Moscow of Russ­ian Actor and Civ­il Rights Activist Alex­ei Devotchenko

6 Novem­ber 2014 — Cam­paign­ers for Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky demand a trans­par­ent inves­ti­ga­tion into yes­ter­day’s sus­pi­cious death in Moscow of Russ­ian actor, civ­il activist, and a friend of the Mag­nit­sky cam­paign Alex­ei Devotchenko.

Alex­ei Devotchenko was one of the few free voic­es left in Rus­sia who had not been killed, arrest­ed or forced into exile because of his way of thinking.

He was brave­ly speak­ing out against the polit­i­cal repres­sion, klep­toc­ra­cy and human rights vio­la­tions endorsed by Pres­i­dent Putin’s regime. Three years ago, in an act of protest against cor­rup­tion and polit­i­cal cen­sor­ship, Alex­ei Devotchenko returned the state hon­ours which had been per­son­al­ly award­ed to him by Pres­i­dent Putin in recog­ni­tion of his accom­plish­ments as an out­stand­ing actor. He explained it in an inter­view to Novy Region 2: “I am com­plete­ly fed up with this tzardom-state­dom. With its lies, cov­er-ups, state-sanc­tioned rob­bery, bribery and oth­er virtues…” (http://www.newsinfo.ru/news/2011 – 11-21/de­votchenko/766105/). Short­ly after­wards, he was attacked on a Moscow under­ground. Details of this inci­dent were report­ed on his facebook.
Last year, Alex­ei Devotchenko was a promi­nent fig­ure at the memo­r­i­al cer­e­mo­ny to mark the life and death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, held at the Sakharov cen­tre. Alex­ei Devotchenko read poems by Russ­ian poet and Nobel Prize lau­re­ate Joseph Brod­sky who was expelled from the Sovi­et Union in 1972. After­wards, he spoke about the dif­fi­cult choic­es that every free-think­ing Russ­ian has to make, and whether it’s safe for him and his fam­i­ly to stay in the coun­try giv­en the polit­i­cal repres­sions and blood­shed that could come of it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68UZDPLwtDY].
Yes­ter­day, Alex­ei Devotchenko was found dead with signs of vio­lence in a pool of blood near his apart­ment in Moscow. Despite ear­ly indi­ca­tions of a sus­pi­cious death, this morn­ing a ‘source’ in the Russ­ian law enforce­ment stat­ed that mur­der was exclud­ed, that the actor was a “drunk,” that the bruis­es were caused by glass fur­ni­ture in his apart­ment, and that a heart attack is a pos­si­ble expla­na­tion for his death (http://www.rg.ru/2014/11/06/devotchenko-site.html; http://www.interfax.ru/culture/405635).

‘We mourn the death of a coura­geous Russ­ian patri­ot Alex­ei Devotchenko. We believe that the Russ­ian pub­lic deserves to know what real­ly hap­pened. We are aware of the extent of cov­er up that is pos­si­ble. As we know from expe­ri­ence, it would not be the first time in Rus­sia that mur­der was cov­ered up by a “heart attack” and “drunk­en­ness.” We demand that the inves­ti­ga­tion of Alex­ei Devotchenko’s death is con­duct­ed open­ly and trans­par­ent­ly,” said a Sergei Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice cam­paign representative.

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Campaign
+44 2074401777
info@lawandorderinrussia.org
lawandorderinRussia.org

Коллеги Сергея Магнитского требуют расследовать обстоятельства гибели в Москве актера Алексея Девотченко

November 6, 2014

Коллеги Сергея Магнитского требуют расследовать обстоятельства гибели в Москве актера Алексея Девотченко

6 ноября 2014 года – Коллеги Сергея Магнитского выражают глубокие соболезнования родным, близки, всем, кто хорошо знал самобытного российского актера и человека с большой буквы Алексея Девотченко. Мы также требуем проведения гласного и полного расследования обстоятельств его гибели.

Алексей Девотченко был настоящим патриотом своей страны. Он занимал ответственную гражданскую позицию и не боялся публично высказываться против подавления в стране любого проявления свободомыслия. В знак протеста против политических репрессий, спонсируемых президентом Путиным, он отказался от врученных ему Путиным Государственных премий. Так он сам объяснил это в интервью «Новый регион 2»:

“Достало вконец все это царство-государство. Своим враньем, круговой порукой, узаконенным грабежом, взяточничеством и прочими доблестями.… А главное — невозможностью играть свои спектакли. Выстраданные и любимые”. http://www.newsinfo.ru/news/2011 – 11-21/de­votchenko/766105/.

В апреле прошлого года Алексей Девотченко выступил на вечере памяти Сергея Магнитского, где он читал стихи Иосифа Бродского, а после выступления говорил о тревожных предчувствиях и опасениях за семью, если они останутся в России (в силу политического гнета, протесты против которого приведут к кровопролитию). (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68UZDPLwtDY).

На теле погибшего актера Алексея Девотченко, по сообщениям прессы, были обнаружены внешние повреждения, в частности, ссадины на ногах и травма головы. 

«Мы скорбим об Алексее Девотченко. Мы настаиваем на проведении гласного и полного расследования обстоятельств его гибели. Мы хорошо знаем, как система умеет скрывать следы преступлений, пытаясь объяснить убийство «сердечным приступом» и «чрезмерным употреблением алкоголя». Так было в случае с Сергеем Магнитским. Только благодаря колоссальным усилиям и реакции всего общества этому удалось противостоять, но несмотря на это Следственный комитет России все равно закрыл дело об убийстве Сергея Магнитского. Мы не должны оставаться равнодушными к произволу и беззаконию. Поддержите наше требование », – сказал представитель программы «Справедливость для Сергея Магнитского».

Отправить Ваше требование провести тщательное и открытое расследование обстоятельств гибели актера Алексея Девотченко можно в Интернет-приемной Следственного комитета РФ по официальной ссылке на его сайте: http://www.sledcom.ru/internet-reception/

За дополнительной информацией обращайтесь:

Программа «Справедливость для Сергея Магнитского»
Телефон: +44 2074401777
info@lawandorderinrussia.org
www.lawandorderinRussia.org

US Judge Makes Surprising Decision to Allow Lawyer John Moscow to Continue Representing Russian Client After Switching Sides in the Forfeiture Case from Crime Uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky

October 24, 2014

PRESS RELEASE
For Imme­di­ate Distribution

US Judge Makes Sur­pris­ing Deci­sion to Allow Lawyer John Moscow to Con­tin­ue Rep­re­sent­ing Russ­ian Client After Switch­ing Sides in the For­fei­ture Case from Crime Uncov­ered by Sergei Magnitsky

24 Octo­ber 2014 – Yes­ter­day in the South­ern Dis­trict court of New York, U.S. fed­er­al judge Thomas Griesa denied Her­mitage Capital’s motion to dis­qual­i­fy New York lawyer John Moscow, law firms Bak­er Hostetler and Bak­er Botts for con­flict of inter­est and breach­ing their clien­t’s confidences. 

The New York case involves the first fed­er­al for­fei­ture and mon­ey laun­der­ing claim brought by the U.S. Gov­ern­ment in rela­tion to pro­ceeds from the $230 mil­lion theft in Rus­sia exposed by the mur­dered Hermitage’s Russ­ian lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky and the pro­ceeds from which have been since traced to mul­ti­ple juris­dic­tions around the world.

The US Gov­ern­ment has stat­ed in its sub­mis­sion to the court that Her­mitage is a “vic­tim” of the $230 mil­lion fraud scheme which was per­pe­trat­ed by the Russ­ian orga­ni­za­tion involv­ing Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials at issue in the for­fei­ture claim. 

In 2008, when Hermitage’s Russ­ian lawyers, includ­ing Sergei Mag­nit­sky, who had inves­ti­gat­ed and report­ed the $230 mil­lion fraud, came under attack from cor­rupt Russ­ian police offi­cers involved in the crime, Her­mitage hired John Moscow, a for­mer New York pros­e­cu­tor respon­si­ble for inves­ti­gat­ing the Russ­ian mafia and a part­ner with the U.S. firm Bak­er Hostetler. Moscow was brought on as an anti-mon­ey laun­der­ing expert to help iden­ti­fy and pros­e­cute per­pe­tra­tors of the $230 mil­lion fraud with the assis­tance of the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice and to trace through US banks pro­ceeds of the $230 mil­lion fraud, the dis­cov­ery of which lead to the false arrest and death of Sergei Magnitsky.

In his work, which last­ed eight months, John Moscow put togeth­er a strat­e­gy of using U.S. courts for sub­poe­nas, fed­er­al for­fei­ture orders and RICO in order to go after the $230 mil­lion fraud per­pe­tra­tors, and pre­sent­ed the results of Hermitage’s inves­ti­ga­tion to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Since then, Her­mitage con­tin­ued its inves­ti­ga­tion into those who ben­e­fit­ed from Sergei Magnitsky’s killing in Russ­ian police cus­tody and the $230 mil­lion fraud he had uncov­ered in coop­er­a­tion with law enforce­ment author­i­ties around the world.

Last year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed the for­fei­ture claim in South­ern Dis­trict Court of New York in rela­tion to the pro­ceeds from $230 mil­lion fraud that the U.S. Gov­ern­ment has traced to a num­ber of mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar prop­er­ties in Man­hat­tan belong­ing to Pre­ve­zon, a Cyprus com­pa­ny owned by Russ­ian nation­al Denis Kat­syv, a son of a for­mer high-lev­el Moscow region­al gov­ern­ment official. 

To Hermitage’s dis­may, John Moscow appeared in court to rep­re­sent Pre­ve­zon in the case against the U.S. Gov­ern­ment. He and oth­er lawyers rep­re­sent­ing the Russ­ian own­er of Pre­ve­zon then began a cam­paign to dis­cred­it Her­mitage as a wit­ness for the U.S. Government. 

“We feel pro­found­ly betrayed by John Moscow and what he did and are dis­ap­point­ed that the court did not rec­og­nize that yes­ter­day,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative. 

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion please contact:

Her­mitage Capital
Phone: +44 207 440 1777
Email: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
Web­site: http://lawandorderinrussia.org
Face­book: http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI
Twit­ter: @KatieFisher__

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