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Российский прокурор поддержал чиновников, включенных в списки Магнитского, на слушании об экстрадиции Аблязова

October 23, 2014

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Российский прокурор поддержал чиновников, включенных в списки Магнитского, на слушании об экстрадиции Аблязова

23 октября 2014 года – Начальник отдела международного сотрудничества Генеральной прокуратуры РФ Денис Грунис, выступая на слушаниях во французском Лионе об экстрадиции Мухтара Аблязова, заявил, что санкции Запада в отношении российских чиновников по делу Магнитского не должны влиять на решения вопросов экстрадиции в Россию, которые направляют эти чиновники. 

В качестве примера он привел судью Алексея Криворучко, который за два месяца до гибели Сергея Магнитского продлил срок его содержания под стражей и отказал в жалобах на жестокое обращение и отказ в медицинской помощи, а сейчас одобрил запрос о выдаче России Аблязова. Прокурор Грунис сообщил, что действия судьи Криворучко не должны смущать французские власти.

Прокурор Грунис также заявил французскому суду, что смерть Сергея Магнитского в следственном изоляторе была «скоропостижной» и что якобы уголовное преследование Сергея Магнитского после его смерти было организовано согласно обращению его матери, что в реальности противоречит многочисленным протестам и жалобам семьи прекратить посмертное преследование, организованное по приказу заместителя Генерального прокурора Виктора Гриня. Как следует из материалов слушаний, прокурор Гринь также одобрил документы в отношении преследования Мухтара Аблязова.

Судья Криворучко и прокурор Виктор Гринь входят в список из 32 россиян, подлежащих санкциям, одобренный Европейским парламентом по делу Магнитского 2 апреля 2014 года (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20140331IPR41184/html/Magnitsky-list-MEPs-call-for-EU-sanctions-against-32-Russian-officials). Судья Криворучко также включен в американский санкционный список, подготовленный в соответствии с требованиями американского закона «Сергей Магнитский. Верховенство закона и ответственность», которым введен запрет на выдачу виз и осуществление банковских услуг лицам, вовлеченным в преследование Сергея Магнитского и мошенническую схему хищения компаний фонда Her­mitage и уплаченных ими 5,4 миллиардов рублей в виде налогов.

Представитель Her­mitage Cap­i­tal сказал:
«Принципы справедливости и соблюдения прав человека требуют, чтобы страны Европы, следуя выраженной воле Европарламента на основе заключений независимых международных организаций, отказывали в экстрадиции в Россию во всех случаях, когда запросы направляются российскими чиновниками из списка Магнитского.»

Ранее по делу Магнитского были приняты резолюции Совета Европы и Европейского парламента. В резолюции Европарламента по делу Магнитского, в частности, было подчеркнуто: 

«Арест Сергея Магнитского и его гибель в заключении – это задокументированный и значительный пример неуважения к правам человека и фундаментальным свободам …, который служит напоминанием многочисленных реальных проблем с верховенством закона в России.»

За дополнительной информацией обращайтесь:
Her­mitage Capital
Телефон: +44 207 440 1777 (г. Лондон)
Эл адрес: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
Вебсайт: http://lawandorderinrussia.org
Фейсбук: http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI
Твиттер: @KatieFisher__

French Prosecutor Makes Public Attempt to Whitewash Corrupt Russian Officials on the Magnitsky List in Ablyazov Extradition Case

October 23, 2014

PRESS RELEASE
For Imme­di­ate Distribution

French Pros­e­cu­tor Makes Pub­lic Attempt to White­wash Cor­rupt Russ­ian Offi­cials on the Mag­nit­sky List in Ablya­zov Extra­di­tion Case

23 Octo­ber 2014 – French pub­lic pros­e­cu­tor Chris­t­ian Pon­sard pub­licly dis­missed the death of Russ­ian anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky in Russ­ian police cus­tody as irrel­e­vant to cas­es of extra­di­tion to Rus­sia. He sug­gest­ed that there was no rea­son to refuse French legal assis­tance to Russ­ian offi­cials who were involved in denial of med­ical care and oth­er vio­la­tions of human rights in Mag­nit­sky case. 

Speak­ing in Lyon Court at an extra­di­tion hear­ing of Mukhtar Ablya­zov last Fri­day, Pros­e­cu­tor Pon­sard report­ed­ly said that the fact that this case was ini­ti­at­ed and inves­ti­gat­ed by Russ­ian offi­cials sanc­tioned by the US and placed on the Euro­pean Parliament’s list should have no bear­ing on the extra­di­tion of Ablyazov. 

“Accord­ing to peo­ple present to the hear­ing, the French pros­e­cu­tor pro­posed that it was fine to extra­dite peo­ple into the hands of US-sanc­tioned and EU Par­lia­ment-des­ig­nat­ed Russ­ian offi­cials respon­si­ble for Sergei Magnitsky’s false arrest, tor­ture and death,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

The state­ment made by Pon­sard is in direct con­tra­dic­tion to the Euro­pean Parliament’s find­ings on the Mag­nit­sky case which said in the res­o­lu­tion adopt­ed on 2 April 2014: 

“The arrest and sub­se­quent death in cus­tody of Sergei Mag­nit­sky rep­re­sent a well-doc­u­ment­ed and sig­nif­i­cant case of dis­re­spect for human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms in Rus­sia, …and serve as a reminder of the many doc­u­ment­ed short­com­ings in respect for the rule of law in Russia.”

The Euro­pean Parliament’s res­o­lu­tion names 32 Russ­ian offi­cials and pri­vate indi­vid­u­als involved in the Mag­nit­sky case (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20140331IPR41184/html/Magnitsky-list-MEPs-call-for-EU-sanctions-against-32-Russian-officials).

“It is sim­ply impos­si­ble for France, as a mem­ber of EU, to ask for jus­tice in Sergei Mag­nit­sky case and then extra­dite some­body in the hands of exact­ly the same peo­ple who already bear respon­si­bil­i­ty for com­plete injus­tice against Sergei Mag­nit­sky,” said Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative. 

French pros­e­cu­tor Pon­sard was sup­port­ed in his attempt to white­wash the crimes against Mag­nit­sky by Denis Gru­nis, head of Russ­ian Gen­er­al Prosecutor’s inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion sec­tion, who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the same extra­di­tion hearing.

Russ­ian Pros­e­cu­tor Denis Gru­nis said he believed it did not mat­ter that the per­son who approved a request for Mr Ablyazov’s extra­di­tion was Moscow judge Alex­ei Krivoruchko, the same judge who two months before Magnitsky’s death, on 14 Sep­tem­ber 2009, refused com­plaints from Sergei Mag­nit­sky against cru­el treat­ment and denial of med­ical care and who pro­longed his detention. 

Mr Krivoruchko has been placed on both US and EU Par­lia­ment-des­ig­nat­ed Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions lists. 

The view of the French pub­lic pros­e­cu­tor is also in con­tra­dic­tion to the con­clu­sions by the 47-mem­ber state Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe expressed in a report “Refus­ing Impuni­ty for the Killers of Sergei Mag­nit­sky” and adopt­ed by over­whelm­ing major­i­ty this Jan­u­ary (http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=20409&lang=en; http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-FR.asp?fileid=20409&lang=FR).

Pros­e­cu­tor Pon­sard also ignores an ear­li­er res­o­lu­tion by the same inter­na­tion­al body which con­clud­ed that mutu­al legal assis­tance to Rus­sia should not be pro­vid­ed in polit­i­cal­ly-moti­vat­ed and abu­sive crim­i­nal cas­es, high­light­ing among such cas­es offi­cial attacks on Sergei Mag­nit­sky and oth­er Her­mitage lawyers in Russia. 

Russ­ian polit­i­cal cam­paign­er and world chess mas­ter, Gar­ry Kas­parov, who attend­ed the hear­ing in Lyon, said on his Face­book account: 

“[Pros­e­cu­tor] Pon­sard dis­counts …that sev­en of the Russ­ian judges and inves­ti­ga­tors [and oth­ers] in the case are on the US sanc­tions list for the per­se­cu­tion of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, an anti-cor­rup­tion attor­ney who died hor­ri­bly in prison… We all know there is no jus­tice in Putin’s Rus­sia. I was very much hop­ing to see bet­ter here in France.”(https://www.facebook.com/GKKasparov/posts/10152818145798307)

The court deci­sion in this pro­ceed­ing is expect­ed on Octo­ber 24, 2014, accord­ing to French press reports.

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__

Interpol has Re-opened the Browder Red Notice Case on the Back of Magnitsky’s Posthumous Trial

July 3, 2014

Inter­pol has Re-openedthe Brow­derRed Notice Case on the Back of Magnitsky’s Posthu­mous Tri­al

3 July 2014 – Doc­u­ments recent­ly received from Inter­pol show that the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment has suc­cess­ful­ly con­vinced Interpol’s Com­mis­sion for Con­trol of Files to re-open their con­sid­er­a­tion to issue an Inter­pol Red Notice for Bill Brow­der, by sub­mit­ting Mr Brow­der’s con­vic­tion in absen­tia in Rus­sia, where he was a co-defen­dant with the deceased Sergei Mag­nit­sky in the first ever posthu­mous tri­al in Russ­ian history.

Two pre­vi­ous Russ­ian attempts to get a Red Notice issued for Mr Brow­der failed because Inter­pol deemed those attempts were polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed and vio­lat­ed Inter­pol’s con­sti­tu­tion. Short­ly after Inter­pol’s first rejec­tion of Rus­si­a’s request for Brow­der, Inter­pol’s Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary wrote an edi­to­r­i­al for the Dai­ly Tele­graph news­pa­per, cit­ing Mr Brow­der’s case as the exam­ple for why reforms are not need­ed at Inter­pol (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10082582/Interpol-makes-the-world-a-safer-place.html).

Strange­ly, Inter­pol has now decid­ed to reopen the case based onthe Mag­nit­sky posthu­mous tri­al. Interpol’s Com­mis­sion for the Con­trol of Interpol’s Files said that it plans to re-exam­ine the Russ­ian sub­mis­sion in rela­tion to Mr Brow­der at its next ses­sion in Octo­ber 2014.

“It would be a true sig­nal of the need for reform of Inter­pol if a Red Notice were issued on the basis of the first posthu­mous tri­al in Europe since Pope For­mo­sus in 897,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

In July 2013, Sergei Mag­nit­sky was con­vict­ed of tax eva­sion three years after he was mur­dered in Russ­ian state cus­tody, in the first ever posthu­mous tri­al in Russ­ian his­to­ry. Bill Brow­der was con­vict­ed as his co-defen­dant in the sec­ond ever tri­al in absen­tia against a West­ern­er. The tri­al was deemed to be polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed and ille­git­i­mate by the Coun­cil of Europe, the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment and numer­ous inter­na­tion­al human rights organisations.

The con­vic­tions have since been upheld by the Moscow City court in Jan­u­ary this year, in the absence of lawyers for Mr Brow­der and Mr Mag­nit­sky. Instead, they were rep­re­sent­ed by unknown lawyers appoint­ed by the Russ­ian government.

In addi­tion to pre­sent­ing Inter­pol with the con­vic­tions from that tri­al as “new evi­dence,” the Russ­ian author­i­ties pre­sent­ed a “fresh” arrest war­rant for Mr Brow­der, issued in March this year on the basis of the posthu­mous tri­al. The arrest war­rant was signed by Moscow judge Ele­na Stashina, who is sanc­tioned by the U.S. Gov­ern­ment for her role in the false deten­tion of Sergei Mag­nit­sky. Four days before Sergei Mag­nit­sky was mur­dered in police cus­tody, Judge Stashina pro­longed his deten­tion and denied Magnitsky’s med­ical care requests.

Judge Igor Alisov, who issued the posthu­mous con­vic­tion, was also placed on the U.S. Government’s sanc­tions list under the ‘U.S. Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act,’ for his role in con­ceal­ing the lia­bil­i­ty of offi­cials involved in Sergei Magnitsky’s death.

The doc­u­ments used in the posthu­mous tri­al were fab­ri­cat­ed by Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers, includ­ing offi­cers Artem Kuznetsov and Oleg Silchenko, also involved in Sergei Magnitsky’s false arrest and deten­tion, and who are also sanc­tioned by the U.S. Gov­ern­ment, which pro­hibits U.S. per­sons from any deal­ings with them.

Сенатский комитет Конгресса США одобрил глобальную версию закона Магнитского

July 1, 2014

30 июня 2014 года – Комитет Сената Конгресса США одобрил новый глобальный законопроект имени Сергея Магнитского, вводящий адресные санкции в отношении коррупционеров и лиц, попирающих базовые ценности и свободы человека во всем мире.

«Новый законопроект имени Сергея Магнитского, одобренный в Комитете Конгресса США, вводит индивидуальную ответственность для коррупционеров и нарушителей прав человека во всем мире, в виде запрета на выдачу виз и арест активов этих лиц, действующих под прикрытием поощряющих их тоталитарных и авторитарных режимов в своих странах. Это – развитие уже действующего закона Магнитского, продемонстрировавшего свою эффективность и новый механизм противостояния коррупции и нарушениям прав человека в 21 веке», — сказал представитель кампании «Справедливость для Сергея Магнитского».

В действующий санкционный список правительства США по закону Магнитского уже включены 30 человек. Список публикуется на сайте Министерства финансов США (http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20140520.aspx).

В Европе Европейский парламент одобрил список из 32 чиновников и частных лиц, причастных к делу Магнитского.

Глобальный законопроект имени Сергея Магнитского будет вынесен на голосование всего Сената Конгресса США.

Global Magnitsky Human Rights & Anti-Corruption Bill Approved by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee

July 1, 2014

30 June 2014 – In a land­mark vote, the U.S. Sen­ate For­eign Rela­tions Com­mit­tee has approved a new Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Bill (S. 1933) which builds on the suc­cess of Rus­sia-focused Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion by impos­ing tar­get­ed sanc­tions on cor­rupt offi­cials and human rights oppres­sors around the world.

“The new Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Human Rights & Anti-Cor­rup­tion bill is a his­toric piece of leg­is­la­tion designed to deter and cre­ate con­se­quences for those who are respon­si­ble for cor­rup­tion and human rights vio­la­tions around the world today. Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions are the new tech­nol­o­gy for fight­ing human rights abuse in the 21^st cen­tu­ry,” said William Brow­der, leader of the glob­al Mag­nit­sky jus­tice movement.

The new Glob­al Mag­nit­sky bill expands the author­i­ty of the U.S. Pres­i­dent to impose tar­get­ed sanc­tions on for­eign per­sons involved in cor­rup­tion and gross vio­la­tions. The Glob­al Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions include visa ban and asset freezes on indi­vid­ual human rights abusers any­where in the world.

In 2012, the U.S. Con­gress adopt­ed the Rus­sia-focused Mag­nit­sky Act which impos­es such tar­get­ed sanc­tions on indi­vid­u­als who were involved in the tor­ture and killing of Russ­ian anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, the cov­er up of these crimes, and indi­vid­u­als who are respon­si­ble for oppress­ing oth­er Russ­ian civ­il rights activists.

Since the adop­tion of the Mag­nit­sky Act, 30 per­sons have been placed on the U.S. Government’s sanc­tions list, includ­ing Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials as well as leader of the Klyuev Crime Group respon­si­ble for the theft of $230 mil­lion of Russ­ian pub­lic funds exposed by late Sergei Mag­nit­sky (http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20140520.aspx).

The glob­al Mag­nit­sky bill is the lat­est in a series of efforts by the US and Europe to build on the Mag­nit­sky Act and end impuni­ty for human rights abusers and cor­rupt offi­cials around the world.

Fol­low­ing the vote in the Sen­ate For­eign Rela­tions Com­mit­tee, the next step in the leg­isla­tive process is for the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky bill to be vot­ed on the Sen­ate floor.

See details on the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky bill:

https://beta.congress.gov/bill/113^th-congress/senate-bill/1933

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