Cameron Council of Europe Visit a Waste of Air Miles
The Prime Minister’s flying visit to the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly today is mission undeliverable, even if many may feel Cameron has a good case. But the way he has pandered to the worst atavistic elements of the Europhobe right and the clamour of the off-shore press for retributionist punishment of prisoners means he will hardly get a hearing.
A simple solution to the issue of prisoners voting rights, for example, would be to do what the French do which is to empower judges to add an additional sentence of loss of civic rights for those imprisoned for serious crimes. This is in conformity with ECHR judgements. Switzerland, the dream nation for anti-EU Tories, has allowed its prisoners to vote for 40 years as have all the more civilised European nations.
Britain has eight, just 8, cases before the ECHR but the real problem is the 100,000 plus cases from Russia. One answer may be to suspend Russia as it was clearly an error to let Russia join the Council of Europe in 1996 when the country had made no effort and still makes no effort to introduce rule of law. The death of Sergei Magnitksy, lawyer of a British firm, in gruesome circumstances in a Russian prison highlights the contempt Russia’s kleptocratic rulers have for legal norms.
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Magnitsky’s family skeptical about new forensic study into his death
The defense team of the family of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer for the investment foundation Hermitage Capital, who died in detention in 2009, is skeptical about an expert examination ordered by the investigation to find out whether Magnitsky had been subjected to torture.
“Three forensic medical examinations have already been carried out. However strange as it may seem, none of them concluded that he had really been subjected to violence, although they found obvious things, like marks on his hands, for instance,” Yelena Oreshnikova, a lawyer for Magnitsky’s widow, told Interfax on Tuesday.
It is strange that such an examination has been ordered so long after Magnitsky’s death, she said.
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Why Putin Believes His Critics Are Monkeys
In the six weeks since the protests began at Bolotnaya Ploshchad, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has made one fatal, but inevitable, error. He broke his vow of silence.
Until now, one of the most conspicuous features of Putin’s rule had been his silence on every subject that had been a source of public outrage.
It was always President Dmitry Medvedev who went out of his way by promising to “get to the bottom” of the latest injustice — for example, the possible cover-up of the fatal car accident involving a LUKoil executive on Leninsky Prospekt, the death of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, the brutal beatings of journalist Oleg Kashin and the persecution of Khimki forest highway protesters. But because Medvedev never made good on his promises, he came off looking like a windbag.
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Poking with the human rights stick
Critical human rights reports from Western agencies have long been the source of consternation among Russian officials. At the end of last month, the Russian Foreign Ministry launched a counterattack, publishing a report highlighting supposed violations in the West. Oliver Bullough was surprised at how readily the document conflated issues of rights and common diplomacy.
Moscow loses patience
For years, Russia has tolerated the State Department’s annual criticism of its human rights situation, but not any more.
It was in April that Moscow finally lost patience. If America would not stop poking it with the human rights stick, it said (though not in precisely those words), Russia would pick up the stick too. It appointed a human rights commissioner and promised to publish probes of its own.
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Human Rights Defenders Ask Senator Kerry to Back Magnitsky Bill
Interfax
Three Russian human rights activists have asked US Senator John Kerry to support a bill that they hold to be potentially instrumental in efforts for the release of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev states Russian news agency Interfax.
Interfax states that the three activists, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Lev Ponomaryov and Nina Katerli, signed a letter to Senator Kerry stating that:
“It is of critical importance to ensure respect for Sergei Magnitsky’s legacy by passing this act, which bears his name, in order to ensure that all Russian violators of human rights be brought to account. [If it becomes law, the proposed Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act – Bill S. 1039 -] would be able to change the life of many of the victims of unlawful conviction and imprisonment. It would help normalize the Russian judicial system and exert an extremely favorable influence on the public and political situation in the country by demonstrating to Russian civil society that the United States is loyal to the principles of rule of law and accountability. There already exists a list of those responsible for the persecution of Khodorkovsky, Lebedev and others as part of the Yukos case. In the current situation, active support by the United States of America and other democratic nations would largely raise our chances of success in the confrontation between citizens and corrupt forces clinging to power.” быстрые займы онлайн займ онлайн female wrestling https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-cash-advances.php https://zp-pdl.com/fast-and-easy-payday-loans-online.php быстрые займы на карту
Russian activists urge US senator to back bill to help jailed tycoons
Ekho Moskvy
Text of report by Gazprom-owned, editorially independent Russian radio station Ekho Moskvy on 20 January
[Presenter] A group of Russian human rights activists, writers, actors, politicians and journalists have appealed for help to US Senator John Kerry, asking him to support a bill which they think can help free Mikhail Khodorkovskiy and Platon Lebedev, who used to run Yukos.
The bill, named after Sergey Magnitskiy [a Hermitage Capital lawyer who died in pre-trial detention] is now under consideration in the [US] Senate. The bill not only provides for sanctions in the Magnitskiy case but also encompasses the whole spectrum of human rights violations. According to rights campaigners, the list of people involved in breaching human rights should also include civil servants responsible for the politically motivated persecution of Khodorkovskiy and Lebedev.
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Biziness and justice, Russian style: The cost to our society could be far worse than the wealth these men bring
William Browder is head of Hermitage Capital in London’s Golden Square. He is a naturalized British citizen, the grandson, as it happens, of Earl Browder, the head of the US Communist Party in the 1940s. That link did neither him nor his mathematician father no favours in life.
In the last year he has received 11 death threats – a text message quoted the Godfather about history showing that ‘there is no one so powerful they cannot be killed’. The calls were traced back to Russia. They probably did not come from gangsters, but from the senior figures in the Russian police, or more worryingly the FSB secret police. They are the ones who poisoned the late Mr Litvinienko with polonium in the middle of London.
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(In Italian) Settimana Internazionale – Il caso Magnitsky
Bill Browder, CEO Hermuitaghe Caital, speaking on Italian Radio Radicale about the Sergei Magnitsky case. (With footage). Also interviewed were Italian MP Matteo Meccacci and journalists Fabrizio Dargosei and Claudio Salvalaggio
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The time is right to challenge the regime in Russia
Protesters are back on the streets of Moscow, but the rest of the world does not seem to care.
Twenty years ago, the new democratic leaders of Russia were left to be dragged down by the ruined economy they inherited, while the West worried only about who would repay Soviet debts. In retrospect, that was a blunder. But the lesson has not been learned. Smouldering discontent with authoritarian crony capitalism is sending fiery sparks into the streets of Moscow and some other cities. But for all the help the outside world is giving, it might as well be a row about football.
The next three months are crucial not just for Russia, but also for its neighbours. Will Vladimir Putin and his ex-KGB pals allow a free election, or even a fair one? What happens if he fails to win in the first round? The president-select may resort to dirty tricks – perhaps the creation of bogus threats from enemies at home and abroad.
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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
