Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

OPEN LETTER

Candidate for Presidency of the Russian Federation from the
“United Russia” party
Mr Vladimir Putin
Candidate for Presidency of the Russian Federation from the
Communist Party of Russia
Mr Gennady Zyuganov
Candidate for Presidency of the Russian Federation from the
“Fair Russia” party
Mr Sergei Mironov
Independent candidate for Presidency of the Russian Federation
Mr Mikhail Prokhorov
Candidate for Presidency of the Russian Federation from the
Liberal Democratic party of Russia
Mr Vladimir Zhirinovsky

8 February 2012

OPEN LETTER

In Russia today, every party’s election platform includes fighting corruption. Every candidate for the Presidency speaks of the urgent need to combat corruption. However, as Russian poet Mikhail Svetlov once wrote, “it is easier to love all mankind, rather than a neighbor in your apartment”. Likewise, it is easier for the Presidential candidates to promise to fight corruption in general, rather than to imprison a few corrupt officials, whose names are well known to all Russians.

Three shameful years have passed since the day when Sergey Magnitsky, a lawyer advising our client Hermitage Capital, was murdered after exposing the theft of 5.4 billion rubles from the Russian budget. The criminals who conducted these crimes, theft and then murder, were caught red-handed. The family members of the former head of the tax inspectorate – Olga Stepanova and her subordinates, who illegally refunded tens of billions of rubles from the Russian budget on the basis of clearly forged documents, became richer by at least US$ 40 million. Immediately after the fraudulent tax return, the families of the Interior Ministry officers Artem Kuznetsov and Pavel Karpov, who were involved in the crime itself and in the cover up the crime, become richer by at least US$ 3 million and US$ 1.5 million respectively. Not a single official has been punished for these crimes.

Sergei Magnitsky, who uncovered this multibillion ruble fraud against the Russian State and people, was charged of committing a non-existent tax crime and illegally arrested by the very same Interior Ministry officers whom he had accused of committing this fraud. He was tortured in prison, his health was broken and he was deprived of required medical treatment and finally beaten to death in a cell of the “Matrosskaya Tishina” detention centre while awaiting emergency medical treatment. After his death, the same Interior Ministry officers who Sergei Magnitsky accused and who murdered him, have brought a fabricated case against Sergei Magnitsky and accused him of the theft that they themselves participated in.

For almost three years the Russian State has passively watched and allowed this organized criminal group, consisting of senior State officials from the tax and law enforcement agencies, as well criminal bankers, lawyers and convicted violent criminals to mock the memory of Sergei Magnitsky and his family and to make a mockery of the Russian justice system, ultimately destroying people’s faith in Russian government. In the worst traditions of the Middle Ages, under protection from the General Prosecution Office, guidance from the FSB and the Interior Ministry, “corrupt officers” continue to persecute Sergei Magnitsky even after his murder by illegally trying a dead man under a fabricated case and interrogating and intimidating his mother and widow.

Despite the unprecedented public outcry, both in Russia and abroad, the police have not done anything to investigate these crimes and punish the real murderers and perpetrators. They have ignored the evidence presented to them in every legitimate complaint and have instead created fabricated cases designed to exonerate the officials and criminal organizers behind these crimes and to blame low level doctors, petty criminals, dead men, and now Sergei Magnitsky, the man who died trying to prevent the theft of billions rubles. Many police officers, prosecutors and other State officials have been involved in this massive cover-up which is obviously designed to protect the criminals and State officials who committed these heinous crimes. Some of these officials involved are clearly high ranking.

This week I filed a criminal complaint with the Head of the Investigative Committee of Russia demanding the prosecution of dozens of law enforcement officials for concealing the truth, falsifying evidence and committing crimes resulting in the exoneration of all the high level people behind the theft and the murder of Magnitsky. These officials have made it possible for these thieves and murderers to escape from their crimes and to enjoy spending ill gotten money stolen from the Russian people in complete safety. (More information can be found about this complaint by visiting http://russian-untouchables.com/rus/ukryvatelstvo-realnykh-ispolnitelei/).

I appeal to you, the candidates for the highest political office in Russia, to speak about what you will do so that Magnitsky’s murderers, people who have stolen billions from the Russian people, end up in jail so that this shameful incident which is destroying people’s faith in the Russian government is brought to an end. The Russian people and the international community will not believe the sincerity of your willingness to fight corruption until you demonstrate that you are willing to punish the people who stole from the entire country and murdered Sergei Magnitsky to hide their crime.

Jamison Firestone
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British premier of the award-winning play, ‘One Hour and 18 Minutes’

The British premiere of One Hour and Eighteen Minutes, presented in conjunction with Sputnik Theatre as part of iceandfire and Amnesty’s script submission scheme Everyone Has The Right.

One Hour Eighteen Minutes is a documentary play which pieces together the final hours of Sergey Magnitsky’s life. Sergey was a corporate lawyer who sued the Russian government for one of the most blatant cases of tax fraud in Russian history. Out of retaliation, the police arrested Magnitsky and threw him into jail. Over the course of eleven months, he was held in pre-trial detention, without charge, and tortured. He died in prison on November 16 2009. On the second anniversary of his death, this play is a dark and intimate look at a corrupt system – the medieval side of modern day Russia.

Sergei Magnitsky Exhibition

Cinema for Peace and Hermitage Capital Management have the honour of inviting you to the VIP opening reception of a ground-breaking exhibition devoted to the life and death of the Russian anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

The “Sergei Magnitsky Exhibition” will be unveiled by the German Justice Minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger. The ceremony will be attended by Sergei Magnitsky’s mother, Mrs Natalia Magnitskaya.

The event will take place on 15 November 2011 in Berlin at the famous Checkpoint Charlie Museum.

Date: Tuesday 15th November
Time: 7:00 -9:30 pm
Venue: Checkpoint Charlie Museum, Friedrichstrasse 43-45, 10969, Berlin

The “Sergei Magnitsky Exhibition” has been set up in memory of Sergei Magnitsky, Hermitage’s Russian lawyer who was arrested and tortured to death in a pre-trial detention centre in 2009, after he had exposed and testified about the largest-known corruption scheme carried out by Russian government officials.

This will be the first opportunity to see the new exhibits and to meet some of the key people involved in the high-profile and significant Magnitsky case, as the battle for justice continues.

William Browder has been successfully lobbying for a change of laws in the US, the UK and across the EU,
and has been making sure – against all odds and political predictions – that Sergei’s torturers and murders are denied entry into these territories and that their assets are frozen. In a historic development, this has become a blueprint for new laws punishing criminals who are not being prosecuted in their own countries.

“The visa ban initiative is of similar importance in the Magnitsky case, as the International Criminal Courtis by going after villains such as Gaddafi and Bashir. Bill Browder has proven that dedication and the power of civil society can help establish the rule of law and justice,” said the chairman of Cinema for Peace Jaka Bizilj.
“UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon has brought it to the point: the era of impunity is over. After the US, UK and Holland, the Federal Republic of Germany should be the next country to close the door for torturers and murderers.”

We hope you will be able to attend this historic and important event and I look forward to seeing you there.
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Let The Films Talk Festival

Jamison Firestone, Managing Partner of law firm Firestone Duncan attended the premier of “Justice for Sergei” in Vilnius, Lithuania last week. “Justice for Sergei” is the award winning documentary film about the life and death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Sergei was killed in custody by the Russian authorities for uncovering and exposing government corruption and theft of state taxes by police and other government officials.

The film screening was hosted by the Lithuanian Centre for Human Rights (LCHR) as part of the “Inconvenient Films” human rights film festival. “Justice for Sergei“ was selected as the opening film and the screening was attended by Lithuania MPs, Members of the European Parliament, Ambassadors, NGOs and members of the media.