Investigator Silchenko was absolved of all Guilt in Connection with Sergei Magnitsky’s death in detention cell

WPS: What the papers say

It was the Russian Investigative Committee that demanded from the Prosecutor General’s Office to run a check of Silchenko’s actions and performance in the course of the investigation that ended in the suspect’s demise. The demand for the investigation was made on May 11 within the framework of the broader investigation of the circumstances of the auditor’s death. It took the Prosecutor General’s Office just over a week to make a formal answer.

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, a thorough investigation of Silchenko’s actions failed to uncover any violations of the federal legislation that might be qualified as encroachment on the constitutional rights of the involved persons.

Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin pointed out that the demand to the Prosecutor General’s Office concerned a check of all circumstances of the investigation involving Magnitsky (including the grounds on which criminal charges had been pressed against him and whether or not all procedures had been observed properly, choice of the measure of restraint, extension of preliminary detention, and consideration of the suspects’ complaints and requests).

The Prosecutor General’s Office gave an analogous answer to the request pertaining William Browder of Hermitage Capital. In a word, the Prosecutor General’s Office absolved the whole team in charge of the investigation into the activities of Hermitage Capital. Off the record, sources within the Russian Investigative Committee said that there were still some unanswered questions to the investigation run by the Interior Ministry (they concerned legitimacy of searches and endless transfers of the suspect from one prison to another and from one cell to another). All of that notwithstanding, Silchenko was absolved of all guilt.

The human rights community predictably hit the roof upon hearing the statement made by the Prosecutor General’s Office. Lyudmila Alekseyeva, member of the presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights running its own investigation of Magnitsky’s death, called the answer given by the Prosecutor General’s Office “formal”. “That was another formal answer,” said Alekseyeva. “Anyway, we are not going to stop. We will continue what we have been doing and we will draw our own conclusions on the investigation.” Alekseyeva added that the information compiled by the Council for Civil Society and Human Rights led to the conclusions polar to the ones drawn by the Prosecutor General’s Office.

Council Chairman Mikhail Fyodorov in the meantime said that his colleagues were focused on encroachments on Magnitsky’s rights in detention and not on whether or not the pressing of charges against him had been valid and warranted in the first place. “We have reasons to believe that the nearly intolerable conditions Magnitsky was placed in played their part,” said Fyodorov.

Valery Borschev of the Moscow Public Supervisory Commission whose members were participating in the independent investigation said that he definitely thought Silchenko guilty of Magnitsky’s death behind the bars.

Hermitage Capital in its turn accused the Russian Investigative Committee of unwillingness to investigate the auditor’s demise. The Russian Investigative Committee was condemned for delegating its powers to the Prosecutor General’s Office i.e. “… a structure that miserably failed to perform its functions when Magnitsky was alive.” “No use expecting a structure involved in this appalling episode to plead guilty now,” said a source within Hermitage Capital. The same source recalled that the so called Magnitsky’s List (persons on it might be denied entry to the United States and European Union and find their foreign bank accounts arrested) included both Silchenko and Deputy Prosecutor General Victor Grin. It is rumored that Russian Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin might be put on the list as well.

The Prosecutor General’s Office declined comment. The Interior Ministry’s Investigative Committee feigned surprise at the indignation voiced by the human rights community. “For some reason, all they are talking about are violations in the course of the investigation. Nobody is interested in the materials of the case as such. Well, we are prepared to make them available, if anyone was interested.” микрозайм онлайн hairy girls https://zp-pdl.com/fast-and-easy-payday-loans-online.php www.zp-pdl.com займ на карту