“No Place to Retreat to”

Vedomosti

The criminal case relating to the death of Hermitage Foundation lawyer Sergey Magnitskiy, who died in a prison hospital on 16 November 2009, is beginning to acquire specific outlines. The Investigations Committee has charged Dmitriy Kratov, deputy chief of the Butyrka holding center, with negligence and prison doctor Larisa Litvinova with causing death by negligence.

There were definitely more people who made decisions and issued orders, so the list of players in the case, which consists of two individuals, looks too much like “scapegoating.” Nevertheless yesterday’s [18 July] statement by the Investigations Committee should be regarded as a big step forward given all the strength of the resistance from the guardians of the honor of uniforms and judges’ robes, who persistently attempted to prove the legality of Magnitskiy’s imprisonment and incarceration. It is a big step forward, but only the first step. Investigators are promising to call to account “other officials irrespective of the posts that they have held previously and currently.” The progress of the trial will demonstrate how possible this is given the current system of relations between the branches of power.

Unless the case is deemed secret on some far-fetched pretext, we will learn from Butyrka staff not only about Magnitskiy’s illnesses and their own failings. As yet nobody knows why medics from another Moscow holding center — Matrosskaya Tishina — decided (a working group of the Presidential Human Rights Committee claims) that Magnitskiy was mentally deficient and summoned a “backup team” with handcuffs, and
who specifically beat the deceased. The prison doctors, who are being compelled to defend themselves, will probably talk about pressure from various offices and the various practices that led to the death of this young man full of joie de vivre. It is currently in the interests of the Russian law-enforcement agencies to avoid using the white coats of prison medics to cover up the case, turning them into “killer
doctors,” but to conduct an investigation and trial that is maximally objective and transparent to society.

Society is waiting: 60 percent of Levada Center respondents support the idea of a public investigation into the MVD [Ministry of Internal Affairs] staffers against whom Magnitskiy gave evidence, while only 7
percent oppose it. Not only a few people believe that the siloviki will be punished: 36 percent of those polled found it hard to predict their fate, 29 percent feel that “nothing will happen” to them, 17 percent hope that they will be dismissed from the MVD, and finally 13 percent hope that there will be criminal proceedings.

The recent dismissals of silovik leaders who tried to close down high- profile cases against businessmen mean that they have been deprived of certain levers for influencing the investigation and inspire cautious
optimism. A fair and public trial of all those implicated inMagnitskiy’s death and the exposure of the initiators and organizers of the case and of their patrons and accomplices in all elements of the law-enforcement system would only benefit Russia. It would improve the reputation of the state and the national judicial system and would be a signal to the business community and public opinion that the state is no longer prepared to accept impunity for individual “untouchable” citizens.

The utilization of criminal cases and other legal instruments to redistribute property is the gravest problem affecting Russia’s investment climate. By setting the Magnitskiy case in motion, law- enforcement officials would do more for Russia’s prosperity than any programs for improving the investment climate.

But if the investigation “finds no grounds” for indicting other people involved in the case, it would become clear that the investigation has again followed the same old path of punishing scapegoats (in white coats on this occasion). It wou ld also be a signal — a very important signal. Now that the case has been set in motion, retreating could lead to catastrophic results. If the brakes were to be put on the case, society would realize that there is no hope of change.

And “untouchable” law-enforcers and officials would understand that they have nothing to fear and can continue to grab assets that have been earned by others and defraud the state. An attack on the business community would then begin with renewed force, and arbitrary action by law enforcers would essentially be legalized. buy viagra online срочный займ на карту онлайн https://zp-pdl.com/fast-and-easy-payday-loans-online.php https://www.zp-pdl.com hairy woman