Russian lawyer beaten on day of jail death: supporters
A Western investment fund whose attorney died in a Moscow jail published documents Monday alleging to show prison officials authorised the use of rubber batons on the day of his death.
The case of Sergei Magnitsky — a whistle-blowing lawyer who alleged mass embezzlement by the tax police — has been highlighted by the West as one of the most flagrant abuses of human rights in Russia in recent years.
The 37-year-old’s death also raised alarm over the Russian justice system’s impartiality and the ability of the police to manipulate the courts.
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Magnitsky was tortured in prison – Hermitage Capital
Hermitage Capital investment fund on Monday released an in-depth and documented report accusing Russian officials of the false arrest, torture and pre-trial death of its auditor Sergei Magnitsky and the subsequent cover-up by Russian officials.
“Most shockingly, this report proves that nearly every high level Russian official in the law enforcement system publicly lied to cover up the fact that he was systematically denied medical care for a life threatening illness,” Hermitage Capital said in a press release.
Magnitsky was arrested and jailed without trial in November 2008 and died in police custody a year later after being denied medical care. The 37-year-old lawyer had accused tax and police officials of carrying out a hefty $230-million tax scam.
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Zakaria: Why Russia is blacklisting Americans
Something in the papers the other day struck me as odd. Russia has placed a number of U.S. officials on a blacklist. They are banned from traveling to Russia because of what the Kremlin is calling “humanitarian crimes.” What’s going on? Isn’t the Cold War over?
Well, it turns out that this is a tit-for-tat reaction to a similar blacklist issued by Washington this year. So why are we blacklisting the Russians?
To explain, let me tell you – or remind you – of a tragic tale. The protagonist is not alive anymore, but his story highlights the amazing impact one person can have on international politics at the highest level.
On the 16th of November, 2009, a Russian lawyer died in a Moscow detention center. His name was Sergei Magnitsky. Magnitsky’s death fuelled outrage on the streets of Moscow. His only crime was to uncover the largest tax fraud in Russian history: $230 million in rebates, falsely claimed by corrupt government officials who in effect stole the money from the Russian state. The price Magnitsky paid for exposing this fraud was to be kept in a dungeon for months.
Despite intense pressure, he refused to withdraw his testimony. He was denied clean water or medical care for his ailments. Within less than a year, he died. Sergei Magnitsky could have remained a statistic – one of 4,000 who die in Russia’s often-brutal prisons every year.
Instead, his story has become the basis for the so-called Magnitsky List – Washington’s list of Russian officials who were involved in the tax fraud and in Magnitsky’s detention. Thanks to lobbying by Magnitsky’s supporters in the West, the European parliament, Canada and the Netherlands are all also considering their own visa bans for a list of 60 Russians.
U.S. action over the Magnitsky case has exposed a raw nerve among Moscow’s elite. You can see it in the Kremlin’s response. It retaliated by blacklisting U.S. officials, but it also indicated it was targeting Americans involved in the prosecutions of two Russian criminals – the arms dealer Viktor Bout and a convicted cocaine smuggler.
So Moscow is comparing the prosecution of notorious arms and drug smugglers with the prosecution and murder of an honest lawyer, in a case that even President Medvedev has said required investigation.
The underlying issue here is that for all the glitter of having being named a BRIC – one of the hot emerging markets – Russia remains a country where corruption is rampant. It ranks 154th in the world on Transparency International’s index – and powerful officials can commit crimes with impunity.
In fact, the most disturbing aspect of the Magnitsky case is that it appears that the entire Russian state is in some sense involved in corruption and crime.
For real change to take place in Russia, it has to come from within. That doesn’t seem likely anytime soon. The current Russian regime seems to have a firm lock on power. But there are some signs of restlessness. Last week Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was booed by a crowd at a martial arts fight in Moscow.
It was on live national television. According to some reports, it was later edited down by state media to only show cheers from the crowd. But the unedited video continues to circulate on YouTube.
Mr. Putin probably doesn’t need to worry about winning back the post of president next year – but that victory might not be seen as wholly legitimate if this discontent grows.
“KermlinRussia,” an anonymous joke Twitter feed, said it best:
“The crowd at a ‘no rules fighting’ match booed the champion of ‘no rules elections.'” buy over the counter medicines онлайн займы https://zp-pdl.com/how-to-get-fast-payday-loan-online.php https://zp-pdl.com/how-to-get-fast-payday-loan-online.php hairy girl
Seeking guilty in Russian whistleblower’s death
If the legal system here worked, a 75-page report titled “The Torture and Murder of Sergei Magnitsky and the Coverup by the Russian Government” would be submitted to a court of law. Instead, it is being delivered Monday to the court of international opinion.
The report, full of links to official documents and the result of a thousand man-hours of work, comes not from officers of the law but an American-born businessman who is convinced that Russian officials are getting away with murder.
William F. Browder, who runs an investment firm based in London, has taken on the role of virtual prosecutor in the death of Sergei L. Magnitsky, who died at the age of 37 in police custody because of his work as a tax adviser to Browder’s Hermitage Capital Management when it operated in Russia.
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Magnitsky death: Falling ill in a Russian jail
The ongoing dispute over the death in custody of Russian corporate lawyer Sergei Magnitsky has drawn attention to the Moscow remand prison where he was being held.
The gates of Butyrka, one of Russia’s oldest prisons, could well be in a museum. Made of oak and hand-wrought steel, they were installed when the prison was built 240 years ago.
Colonel Sergei Telyatnikov, the prison’s director, says it is time for the old gates to go, but he is fond of the metal.
“The original stuff,” he says. “When we do repairs to doors and grills we discover it’s much better than the modern steel.”
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Russia’s WTO accession sparks debate over human-rights legislation
Russia’s expected invitation to join the World Trade Organization next month has ignited debate in Congress on a bill that targets Russian human-rights abuse and a trade law that could hurt U.S. businesses.
The debate over punishing Russian human-rights abusers and voiding a Cold War-era trade law poses a test for the Obama administration’s “reset” in relations with the former Soviet republic.
As a WTO member, Russia would enjoy regulated access to U.S. markets, even as Moscow has backslid on democratic reforms by cracking down on dissenters, limiting opposition and restricting the press.
Russia has threatened to end cooperation with the U.S. on Iran sanctions and Afghan transit if the U.S. implements the proposed Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act.
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Russia extends dead lawyer inquiry
Russia’s Interior Ministry has been accused of “spitting on the grave of a dead man” as it pressed on with the investigation into Sergei Magnitsky, the lawyer who died in custody.
Mr Magnitsky was working for Hermitage Capital, an investment fund, when he claimed to have uncovered a $230m (£150m) tax fraud, allegedly perpetrated by Interior Ministry officials. The same officials arrested him over tax evasion in late 2008, and he spent nearly a year without trial in Moscow’s notorious Butyrka prison,where he died of untreated pancreatitis in November 2009.
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Russian lawyer says Magnitskiy tax evasion case reopened illegally
The tax evasion case against late Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergey Magnitskiy, who died in a Moscow remand centre on 16 November 2009, has been reopened illegally, Dmitriy Kharitonov, lawyer of Magnitskiy’s widow, told Russian news agency Interfax on 24 November. Kharitonov also said the investigators should not seek the views of Magnitskiy’s relatives on the case.
Under the law, the case of Magnitskiy can only be reopened for his rehabilitation, however, the Interior Ministry is not ready to take this step, Kharitonov told radio station Echo Moskvy on 24 November.
“They reopened the case not because the family members had asked so but on the initiative of the Prosecutor-General’s Office. If they did so on the initiative of the Prosecutor-General’s Office, then, as far as I understand it, they did this for his rehabilitation. If they want his rehabilitation together with the Prosecutor-General’s Office, let them drop the criminal case on exonerative grounds and let the relatives alone,” Kharitonov told Interfax.
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Investigation against Russian lawyer who died in jail extended despite his family’s pleas
Russian investigators on Thursday declined to close a probe against a Russian lawyer who died in jail of an untreated illness, extending the investigation by another two months despite his family’s pleas to end it.
Sergei Magnitsky died of an untreated pancreatitis in November 2009 after spending almost a year in a Moscow jail on tax evasion charges. Investors working in Russia have said the lawyer’s death and allegations of torture highlight corruption in the judicial system and presents a litmus test for President Dmitry Medvedev’s pledge to cement the rule of law in the country.
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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