Worldwide Reaction

The cruel persecution and death from torture in custody of Sergei Magnitsky, the 37-year old anti-corruption lawyer and father of two, has struck a chord around the world. People everywhere, both in Russia and abroad, are outraged.

Reports and appeals issued after Sergei Magnitsky’s Death:

1. U.S. Congressional Human Rights Commission Hears Testimony on Sergei Magnitsky’s Murder from William Browder (May 2010)
2. U.S. National Security Adviser Michael McFaul Meets Natalia Magnitskaya, Mother of Sergei Magnitsky (May 2010)
3. List of 60 Corrupt Russian Officials on Senator Cardin’s Travel Blacklist, Delivered to the U.S. State Department (April 2010)
4. U.S. State Department 2009 Human Rights Report (March 2010)
5. Moscow Prison Watchdog, Public Oversight Commission, Issues Report on Torturous Conditions and Denial of Medical Care to Magnitsky in Detention (December 2009)
6. Sergei Magnitsky Named World’s 20th Most Influential Person in Business Ethics by Ethisphere Magazine for His Bravery in Blowing the Whistle on Official Corruption in Russia
7. Amnesty International Report on Human Rights(May 2010)
8. UK Foreign Office Human Rights Report (March 2010)
9. Human Rights Watch Report on Human Rights (May 2010)
10. UK Law Society Letter re Magnitsky (7 Dec 2009)
11. Statement at the OSCE Review Conference, Working Session 3 by William Browder Chief Executive Officer (4 Oct 2010)
12. Freedom House new Report: “Corruption in the Former Soviet Union and New EU Members” (24 Mar 2011)
13. Senator John McCain calls on President Obama to proscribe the Klyuev Criminal Group as a terrorist organisation (26 June 2012)
    

Reports and appeals issued before Sergei Magnitsky’s Death:

1. Council of Europe Report on Politically-Motivated Abuse of Criminal Justice System exemplified by Magnitsky’s arrest on trumped-up charges (August 2009)
2. UK Law Society Appeals to President Medvedev to Stop Persecution of Sergei Magnitsky and other Hermitage Lawyers (July 2009)
3. International Bar Association Condemns Persecution of Sergei Magnitsky and Other Hermitage Lawyers (June 2009)
4. U.S. Helsinki Commission Hears Testimony on Sergei Magnitsky’s Arrest from William Browder (June 2009)

1) William Browder Testimony to the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Commission (6 May 2010)
[Download this document in PDF]

2) U.S. National Security Adviser Michael McFaul Meets Natalia Magnitskaya, Mother of Sergei Magnitsky
On 27 May 2010, Michael McFaul, Special Assistant to U.S. President Obama and Senior Director of Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the U.S. National Security Council, met in Moscow with Natalia Magnitskaya, Sergei Magnitsky’s mother. McFaul emphasized the case of Sergei Magnitsky among “atrocious, tragic things” during a discussion of human rights, prison reform and migration issues at a meeting yesterday of the US-Russia Civil Society Working Group, which he co-chairs with First Deputy Head of the Russian Presidential Administration, Vladislav Surkov.

McFaul also discussed the case of Sergei Magnitsky at a meeting with Valery Borschev, chair of Moscow Prison Oversight Commission (MPOC), on 26 May 2010. The MPOC issued a damning report earlier this year into the death of Sergei Magnitsky stating that during Magnitsky’s pre-trial detention he was subjected to physical and psychological pressure, torturous conditions and deprived of medical care by Interior Ministry investigators in order to obtain false testimony from him. The report also indicated that prison officials and doctors gave entirely contradictory accounts of what happened to Magnitsky in custody in the last hours of his life. The MPOC concluded that those officials were deliberately concealing the truth.

3) Cardin List
U.S. Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Maryland) has called for the U.S. State Department to impose visa sanctions against 60 Russian officials and others involved in a $230 million corruption case that resulted in the death of Sergei Magnitsky. (A copy of the letter is here as a pdf.)

As Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (the U.S. Helsinki Commission), Senator Cardin has held hearings on corruption, including a 2009 event that highlighted the case of Hermitage Capital Management, the company whose lawyer — Sergei Magnitsky — exposed a $230 million tax fraud scheme perpetrated by numerous Russian officials, including Artem Kuznetsov and Pavel Karpov. Magnitsky died while in pre-trial detention, after repeatedly being denied medical treatment.
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Letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (26 April 2010)
In a letter addressed to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senator Cardin demanded that the State Department “immediately cancel and permanently withdraw the U.S visa privileges of all those involved in this crime, along with their dependents and family members.”
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4) U.S. Department of State 2009 Human Rights Report for Russia (March 2010)
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/eur/136054.htm
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In March 2010 the U.S. State Department published its annual summary of human rights observance in Russia. The 2010 report condemns Sergei’s illegal arrest, imprisonment and death and notes the extreme human rights violations Sergei endured while in detention. In particular, the report confirms how “a number of human rights activists believed Magnitsky’s death to have been either deliberate or the result of an attempt to pressure him to change his testimony against Kuznetsov and Karpov.” The report further notes to date how no one has been prosecuted for the crimes committed against Sergei Magnitsky.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton officially submitted the Human Rights Report to the U.S. Congress on 11 March 2010.

Extracts of the report related to Sergei and the fraud he reported:

In November former Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in a Moscow prison in a case of what some observers considered to be deliberate medical neglect (see section 1.c.).

On November 17, 37-year-old lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in the infirmary of Moscow’s Butyrsky Prison. Magnitsky had worked as a lawyer for Hermitage Capital, an investment fund that accused Interior Ministry officials Artyom Kuznetsov and Pavel Karpov of stealing 5.4 billion rubles ($179 million) in a tax fraud scheme. After Magnitsky gave testimony in court in 2008 against Kuznetsov and Karpov, officials charged and arrested him on tax evasion charges that many observers believed were fabricated. After a year in pretrial detention, Magnitsky developed an infection in his pancreas but was refused medical treatment and died. The official report of his cause of death was heart failure, which was widely considered to be a false diagnosis intended to hide the decision to deny him medical treatment. A number of human rights activists believed Magnitsky’s death to have been either deliberate or the result of an attempt to pressure him to change his testimony against Kuznetsov and Karpov. In the aftermath of Magnitsky’s death, there were a number of official investigations into treatment of prisoners, and more than 20 officials in the prison system were fired. In December, the Justice Ministry announced a formal criminal investigation into Magnitsky’s death, but no one had been criminally charged by year’s end.

In November former Hermitage lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in a Moscow prison where he was being held on tax evasion charges. It was widely believed that the charges were fabricated and that his imprisonment took place as a result of his testimony in a corruption case against government officials (see sections 1.a. and 1.c.).

On February 10, President Medvedev reconstituted the Human Rights Council, with Pamfilova still at the head. Its membership continued to include prominent human rights activists strongly critical of the government’s human rights record. Medvedev held meetings with the council in April and in November. During the Podrabinek controversy (see section 2.a.), Pamfilova took a public stance defending Podrabinek’s right to free expression and succeeded in removing the pressure on the journalist. When the council met with Medvedev in November, Pamfilova attacked the government over the Sergei Magnitsky case (see sections 1.a., 1.c., and 4), and stated, “A sudden death in a detention center is the professional disease of Russian businessmen.” This quote appeared on the Kremlin Website in the transcript of the meeting and was also broadcast on REN-TV.

5) Public Oversight Commission Report into Death of Sergei Magnitsky
This report was published in late 2009 by the Public Oversight Commission for Human Rights Observance in Moscow Detention Centers. Following an exhaustive investigation and numerous interviews with the state officials, prison wardens, doctors and others, the report concludes that Sergei Magnitsky’s “right to life” was violated in pre-trial detention. The report further finds that Sergei was subjected to physical and psychological pressure, torture and inhuman conditions for the duration of his incarceration and deprived of urgent life-saving medical care by Interior Ministry investigators. The Committee also notes the conflicting statements given by the numerous prison officials casts significant doubts on the truthfulness of their accounts.
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6) Sergei Magnitsky Named World’s 20th Most Influential Person in Business Ethics by Ethisphere Magazine for his Bravery in Exposing Official Corruption in Russia
Sergei Magnitsky is named 20th world’s most influential person in ethics in 2009. The list of 100 most influential people in the world in ethics comprises those individuals that had significant impact in the realm of business ethics over the course of the year. Sergei Magnitsky was recognised for his bravery in blowing the whistle on corrupt Russian officials who embezzled $230 million. Sergei Magnitsky paid the ultimated price for his bravery.
The objective of the list compiled by Ethisphere is to highlight those people who have impacted the world of business ethics in ways that will continue to resonate for many years.

See the list.

7) Amnesty International Report on Human Rights(May 2010)
Page 293 of PDF file – Russia
http://report2010.amnesty.org/sites/default/files/AIR2010_EN.pdf

8) UK Foreign Office Human Rights Report (March 2010)
http://centralcontent.fco.gov.uk/resources/en/pdf/human-rights-reports/human-rights-report-2009

9) Human Rights Watch Report on Human Rights (May 2010)
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/05/28/eu-russia-summit-turn-words-rights-action

 

10) UK Law Society Letter re Magnitsky (7 Dec 2009)
[Download this document in PDF]

11) Statement at the OSCE Review Conference, Working Session 3 by William Browder Chief Executive Officer (4 Oct 2010)
[Download this document in PDF]

12) Freedom House Report: “Corruption in the Former Soviet Union and New EU Members” (24 Mar 2011)
[Download this document in PDF]
The highly publicized cases of Sergei Magnitsky, a 37-year-old lawyer who died in pretrial detention in November 2009 after exposing a multimilliondollar fraud against the Russian taxpayer, and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed business magnate and regime critic who was sentenced at the end of 2010 to remain in prison through 2017, put an international spotlight on the Russian state’s contempt for the rule of law.

13) Senator John McCain calls on President Obama to proscribe the Klyuev Criminal Group as a terrorist organisation (26 June 2012)
[Download this document in PDF]
U.S. Senator John McCain called on President Obama to invoke Executive Order 13581 against the Klyuev Organized Crime Group in Russia connected to the murder of whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Executive Order 13581 was signed by President Obama in July last year and allows the President to “proscribe” organized crime groups using the same tools that the US Government currently uses against terrorist organizations.