Cold comfort for Magnitsky cause

The Moscow News

A trio of positive signals from Russian authorities offers scant cause for celebration among friends and family of dead lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

“The investigation has made significant progress,” President Medvedev told journalists in a televised question and answer session on Wednesday afternoon. He added that Russian investigators are to help Swiss counterparts and that the circumstances and actual causes of Magnitsky’s death “will be known soon.”

Suspect tax officials will be inspected closely, he added something that Magnitsky’s colleagues have been demanding since the lawyer’s death in custody in November 2009.

Add to this an extension to the investigation and the Justice for Magnitsky Campaign seems to have made progress. But not everyone is convinced.

Meaningless

Russian Investigators announced on Tuesday that a crime report filed by Jamison Firestone, Magnitsky’s old boss, had been duly noted. This implies that the clock is now ticking for allegedly corrupt tax officials in tax inspectorates 25 and 28, for whose crimes Magnitsky was supposedly charged.

“In fact, the crime report was registered on 20 April 2011 (by Investigative Committee officer Danilov). By Russian law, the case must be opened to investigate the crime report, or the application to investigate it rejected, within 72 hours. In this case, it’s been almost a month, and no decision has been made,” a representative from Hermitage Capital, Magnitsky’s old firm, told The Moscow News.

Case extended

The investigation into Magnitsky’s death was due to expire yesterday but was given an added shelf life of three months that same day, as medical reports are still pending, RIA Novosti reported.

Yet Hermitage Capital remain unconvinced, “His family was refused their request to carry out an independent autopsy. They were also refused to have an independent coroner present during the official autopsy.”

And suspicions continues to hover when during the initial forensic inspection the cause of death was quickly changed from membrane rupture and toxic shock to heart failure, the representative added.

Request denied

“Lyudmila Alexeyeva, chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group, requested that the Investigative Committee indict Interior Ministry officers (Silchenko, Kuznetsov, Karpov and others) for the torture and premeditated, cruel murder of Magnitsky, carried out to conceal the theft those officers were complicit in,” the representative said.

Yet this request was denied and no investigation opened, the representative added.

Magnitsky was imprisoned after defending Hermitage Capital Management against tax evasion charges. He accused Russian tax and Interior Ministry officials of using Hermitage to carry out a $230 million tax fraud.

His death in pre-trial detention caused international uproar and has strained relations with Europe and North America. займ на карту срочно без отказа payday loan https://zp-pdl.com https://www.zp-pdl.com займ онлайн на карту без отказа