U.S. Reiterates Demand for Justice in Magnitsky Case
Days after Russian authorities decided to try lawyer Sergei Magnitsky posthumously, the U.S. Department of State reiterated its calls to bring those guilty for his death in detention to justice.
Investigators of the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday they were ready to submit the case of the late Sergei Magnitsky, a Hermitage Capital auditor, and Hermitage Capital CEO William Browder to court.
“Pursuing criminal charges against Sergei Magnitsky serves no purpose other than to deflect attention away from the circumstances surrounding this tragic case,” office of the spokesperson said in a statement.
“We’ve seen the press reports about the reopening of the Magnitskiy case,” Department of State Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told a press briefing earlier in the day. “We continue to call for Russian authorities to bring those responsible for Sergei Magnitskiy’s death to justice.”
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State Department unaware Russia trying dead anti-corruption lawyer
The State Department had a response ready at today’s press briefing in case it was asked about the trial of those responsible for the death of Russian anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. The problem is that the Russian’s aren’t trying his killers — they are trying Magnitsky himself — even though he died over two years ago.
On Feb. 7, the New York Times reported that the Russian government is moving forward with tax evasion charges against Magnitsky, even though he died in detention in November 2009, reportedly after being abused and then refused medical attention by his captors. The title of the article was “Russia Plans to Retry Dead Lawyer in Tax Case.”
Asked about the plan to try Magnistky posthumously at Thursday’s press briefing, spokeswoman Victoria Nuland read from her briefing book the following comment:
“We’ve seen the press reports about the re-opening of the Magnitsky case. We continue to call for Russian authorities to bring those responsible for Sergei Magnitsky’s death to justice.”
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Russia’s posthumous trial of lawyer shows corruption is still rife
This week it was announced that the Russian authorities are planning to resubmit a tax evasion case for trial. Nothing out of the ordinary, you might think, except for the fact that the defendant is deceased.
The accused in question is Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in a Moscow prison cell in November 2009. Magnitsky was initially detained in November 2008 on suspicion of assisting one of his clients – UK-based investment fund Hermitage Capital – evade about $17.4m in taxes. Although the original allegations were lodged against Hermitage, during the investigation Magnitsky discovered what he believed to be a cover-up for Russian state officials to embezzle an estimated $230m from the Russian treasury.
Subsequently, Magnitsky testified against two senior officials in the interior ministry, Lt Col Artyom Kuznetsov and Major Pavel Karpov, and accused them of tax fraud. Shortly after, Magnitsky himself was arrested and detained in prison on charges of fraud and tax evasion. It is thought that the charges placed against him were designed to make him back down and sweep the whole embezzlement scandal under the carpet. However, Magnitsky never made it to trial. After a year of being detained, he died in a prison cell aged 37 and the exact causes and circumstances surrounding his death remain a mystery.
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Editorial: “Trial After Death”
Vedomosti
Absurdity is becoming a reality. Sergey Magnitskiy, the Hermitage Capital attorney who died (or was murdered, according to human rights advocates) in November 2009 in the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention facility, might be put on trial. The MVD [Ministry of Internal Affairs] Department of Investigations reported yesterday that his case file might be turned over to one of the courts in the capital soon.
The investigators’ actions in the Magnitskiy case are surprising for many reasons. Putting a dead man on trial when the people responsible for his death were never punished will be perceived as a subtle insult to the memory of the deceased and to his family and friends. According to many experienced attorneys and law enforcement personnel, they have never been involved in the criminal prosecution or defense of deceased individuals. Proceedings in which the accused died long before the trial were characteristic of the Inquisition or the Stalin era (the case of the conspiracy in the Red Army, for example, and the Doctors’ Plot). Rehabilitation proceedings, in which the case is reviewed in light of new evidence, are the only exception.
The problem, however, is not confined to the moral aspect of the future trial. The legal grounds for simultaneous proceedings against a live individual and one who died more than two years ago are questionable. Cases of this type are often separated for the quick cessation of the prosecution of the deceased. The line of reasoning for the reopening of the case is also questionable. The reader may recall that the criminal prosecution of the Hermitage Capital attorney was originally terminated soon after his death, in spring 2010. In August 2011 the General Prosecutor’s Office rescinded the order to close the case, citing the Constitutional Court ruling of 14 July 2011. Sections 24 and 254 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, allowing a case to be closed following the death of a suspect, an accused individual, or a defendant without the consent of the relatives of the deceased, were declared unconstitutional by the court at that time. “The denial of the opportunity to assert an individual’s rights and legal interests in a criminal trial … would be tantamount to the disparagement of that individual’s honor and dignity by the state,” the judges declared.
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Putin’s courts will soon put Sergei Magnitsky on trial, but he won’t be attending.
Few things illuminate the dark underbelly of Vladimir Putin’s Russia more starkly than the fact that a man who is among the most furiously denounced by the regime, and harshly prosecuted by law enforcement, is a mild-mannered corporate lawyer who’s been dead for more than two years.
The case of Sergei Magnitsky — who uncovered what might well be the crime of the century and then made the mistake of testifying about it — has grown into a huge international scandal ever since he died, under highly suspicious circumstances, in a police holding cell in November 2009.
The story of how Magnitsky exposed a vast corruption ring at the highest official levels, and then was allegedly framed, tortured and murdered, has been well documented. It is detailed in reports by Moscow’s independent prison watchdog, the Kremlin’s in-house human rights commission, as well as a 75-page investigation commissioned by his employer, Hermitage Capital, a London-based asset management firm founded in 1996 that remains one of the largest foreign investors in Russia.
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Russia shifts ‘from legal nihilism to legal barbarism’
The last 12 years of Vladimir Putin’s rule were a “miracle of God,”the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said today, as Kremlin insiders cited a Washington-based democracy assistance group as a threat to the prime minister’s presidential bid.
But the news that Russian investigators intend to prosecute a dead lawyer, killed in jail after investigating official corruption, suggests only divine intervention will confer credibility on Putin’s promises this week to revive democracy, civil society and rule of law.
“We should make justice available to everyone by introducing administrative proceedings not only for businesses but also to hear disputes between citizens and officials,” Putin writes in The Washington Post today. “Civic organizations will be granted the right to file lawsuits with the aim of defending their members’ interests. We will eliminate the root causes of corruption and punish particular officials.”
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A dead man’s tale of Russian justice
Russian police have threatened a posthumous prosecution of Sergei Magnitsky, the lawyer who died in custody where he was detained on charges of tax evasion after accusing interior ministry officials, police and others of corruption. His relatives were advised that the prosecution might be dropped if they stopped trying to clear his name and pursue those responsible for his death.
Things had started badly in the Moscow courtroom that morning. A sour mood prevailed in the drab functional chamber. Up on the bench the presiding judge was already showing signs of irritation. He took his duties seriously and the accused was clearly making a mockery of proceedings by being dead.
Judge X was inherently a well-meaning man but he took a dim view of people being dead when they were due in court. He considered whether an exemplary punishment might be warranted as a warning to others not to be dead when they had serious charges to face.
Worse still, the accused was not only dead, he had refused to show up. Bad enough to stand trial while dead; unforgivable to skip the hearing altogether. In the cage that served as a dock, two guards stood on either side of the empty chair in case the accused tried to escape.
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Officials may try lawyer posthumously for taxes
Russia may posthumously try for tax evasion Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who died in prison in 2009 after exposing police corruption, investigators said Tuesday. His former employer, investment firm Hermitage Capital, decried the continued “repression” of the lawyer and accused authorities of “running roughshod over all legal precedent, practice and morality.”
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Nemtsov backs Canadian call for Russia visa blacklist
Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov during a visit to Canada’s parliament on Wednesday backed calls for a Canadian blacklist of 60 Russian officials linked to the death of a young lawyer.
Sergei Magnitsky died of untreated heart condition and pancreatitis in an isolation cell in November 2009.
The 37-year-old lawyer’s death after 11 months in a Moscow jail sparked global outrage and came to symbolize problems in the Russian judicial system.
In September, his mother Natalia Magnitskaya alleged that the death of her son was not caused by negligence but was a premeditated murder brought on by months of torture to keep him silent.
The blacklist proposed by Canadian Liberal MP Irwin Cotler “won’t be against Russia, but against the corrupt system in Russia,” declared Nemtsov. “I believe Canada is friendly with Russia as a country.”
Cotler — Canada’s former justice minister — introduced legislation in October calling for those individuals believed to be responsible for Magnitsky’s death to be barred from Canada.
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To learn more about what happened to Sergei Magnitsky please read below
- Sergei Magnitsky
- Why was Sergei Magnitsky arrested?
- Sergei Magnitsky’s torture and death in prison
- President’s investigation sabotaged and going nowhere
- The corrupt officers attempt to arrest 8 lawyers
- Past crimes committed by the same corrupt officers
- Petitions requesting a real investigation into Magnitsky's death
- Worldwide reaction, calls to punish those responsible for corruption and murder
- Complaints against Lt.Col. Kuznetsov
- Complaints against Major Karpov
- Cover up
- Press about Magnitsky
- Bloggers about Magnitsky
- Corrupt officers:
- Sign petition
- Citizen investigator
- Join Justice for Magnitsky group on Facebook
- Contact us
- Sergei Magnitsky
